OTTAWA -- The head of Ontario's COVID-19 vaccine distribution task force, retired Gen. Rick Hillier, is suggesting glitches and issues with the vaccination booking portal should be resolved by the end of the day Tuesday.
Ontario's Ministry of Health said Monday it was aware that some residents have had trouble booking COVID-19 vaccine appointments through the province's online booking system.
Several residents told CTV News Ottawa they tried to book their first and second appointments, but were unable to progress through the online form because there was no way to book a second dose appointment.
The Ministry of Health told CTV News Ottawa in an email that it was aware of the issue and was working to fix it but did not say when the issue might be resolved.
“We have been informed that some users are reporting an issue when trying to select a date for their second dose vaccination appointment through Ontario.ca/bookvaccine. We are looking into this and will seek to resolve any identified issues as soon as possible,” the statement said.
Some residents also reported similar issues while trying to book over the phone. The nature of the problem remains unknown.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Gen. Hillier said he was aware of the issue and said he expected the problems would be resolved before phone lines reopen Wednesday.
"By the time I asked the team about it, they had already started working to find out what in the coding was causing the problem," Hillier said. "We'll have it fixed by the end of the day. Any of the glitches that we have encountered, we'll have them fixed by the end of business tonight and be ready to roll again tomorrow so that we can book every single appointment for a vaccine as soon as possible."
Hillier said in the past 36 hours, approximately 200,000 appointments were booked provincewide using the vaccine booking system.
Vaccine appointments for residents of Ontario born in or before 1946 opened as of Monday morning. The new eligibility criteria came into effect one week after the portal launched for residents 80 and older.
In a letter to Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott, Ottawa South Liberal MPP John Fraser raised the issues residents have been having booking appointments this week, as well as the 3,100 local appointments that had to be rebooked because of a double booking error last week and other residents who said their second dose appointments were suddenly cancelled.
"No dedicated telephone line was provided for either of these two groups of residents. They were instead told to call the central booking line, despite knowing that this line would also be accessed by a new age eligibility group, adults 75 and over," Fraser wrote. "Of course, they had to wait for hours on the phone. Once they finally reached an operator, they are told that appointment bookings are not currently being accepted and that they will need to call back in a couple of days."
He urged the premier and the health minister to address the issue.
"Understandably, many of these residents are concerned, frustrated and anxious. I am urging you to remedy these technical issues immediately and communicate next steps to residents. Getting vaccines into the arms of our most vulnerable is our collective concern and must be the top priority for your government."
In a memo to city councillors sent Tuesday afternoon, Ottawa Medical Officer of Health Dr. Vera Etches and Emergency and Protective Services General Manager Anthony Di Monte said they were relaying residents' concerns to the province.
"The City is aware of ongoing province-wide issues with the provincial booking system and is providing feedback from residents to the Province as they work to resolve the issues as quickly as possible," the memo said.
The memo noted that the city does not have access to the back-end of the provincial system.
Ottawa’s Mayor Jim Watson says the problem is out of city hands, it’s the province that needs to fix the portal.
"In some instances, they were double-booking people and that had a negative impact and we had to pivot their vaccination site and in other instances the form on the provincial system is not allowing people to book their second vaccine," Watson said. "It’s not an Ottawa problem its a provincewide problem. We need to get these issues resolved as quickly as possible and we’ve been dealing with the province because it’s their system."
Last Monday, there were technical issues for part of the day where people trying to book online would get an error message and where people calling on the phone were being redirected to Ottawa Public Health. The province announced later in the afternoon that the issues had been resolved and that nearly 100,000 appointments had been booked provincewide by that time.
Following the errors last week, the head of Ottawa's local vaccination campaign, Anthony Di Monte, acknowledged the demand for the vaccines but stressed that the vaccination booking portal will remain open and residents can book at a later time.
"The number of appointments doesn't disappear. If you don't get on today, the vaccine is there," he said. "You'll be able to book an appointment and you'll be able to get a vaccine."
