Thousands seeking COVID vaccines in Wake County temporarily overwhelm sign-up system
Thousands of people seeking COVID-19 vaccinations inundated Wake County’s sign-up system Tuesday morning.
“Our phone(line) and website are temporarily overwhelmed,” county spokesperson Stacy Beard wrote in an email to The News & Observer at 9:36 a.m.
By about 10:15 a.m., the online sign-up portal — wakegov.com/vaccine — was back online. Callers were always able to get through on the phone line, Beard said, but not everyone at one time.
“Thousands of them calling all at once in our first hour are causing some to not be able to get in right away,” Beard wrote. “Our IT folks reworked some things so we have expanded the capacity for the online form, but the key is reminding people that this hotline and the online form are 24/7.”
Registration for Wake County Public Health’s vaccine wait list launched at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. The county plans to begin vaccinating people in Group 2, which includes anyone 65 or older, this week.
Both the phone line at 919-250-1515 and the web portal will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week moving forward.
The health department said last week that people do not need to worry about being first in line to secure an appointment, which is the process in some other counties. This isn’t an appointment phone line, but instead will be an initial tool to screen eligibility for a wait list.
By 8 p.m., more than 30,000 people had been placed on the wait list, the county announced. More than 500 signed up Tuesday for appointments this week.
County officials said they are prioritizing vaccine appointments based on factors such as age, vulnerability to COVID-19 through the workplace and infection rates in the recipients’ ZIP code.
Wake County has more than 180,000 people in North Carolina’s vaccine Groups 1 and 2, Beard said.
Group 1 includes all health care workers, as well as anyone living or working in a long-term care setting. Group 2 includes anyone who is at least 65 years old.
Attempts to visit the county’s vaccine sign up portal around 9 a.m. Tuesday revealed a blank white page with a message stating, “The service is unavailable.” Many people also reported not being able to get through to the county’s vaccine phone line, with attempts to dial 919-250-1515 simply saying the phone line was busy.
Joan Seymour described trying to sign up online beginning at 8:30 a.m., when the portal was supposed to launch.
“The website says it is unavailable every time I tried it,” Seymour wrote in an email. “I am very discouraged and angry.”
Seymour also said she tried to call the phone line, but that it was constantly busy. By mid-morning, Seymour was able to access the online portal and land on the waiting list.
County commissioners discussion
During a Wake County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday, County Manager David Ellis apologized to people who experienced difficulties registering for a spot on the list. The website was down for about an hour after it first launched, but held steady the rest of the day, he said.
Wake County’s call center has about 30 people staffing the phone, but there are plans to at least double the number available to answer the phones, Bill Greeves, Wake County’s chief information officer, said during the meeting. But adding staff will take a few days.
Greeves encouraged people to register through the website if they can’t reach someone on the phone or to call back at a later time.
Some people who registered for a vaccine did not get a confirmation email, said County Commissioner Vickie Adamson. People should check to see if the email went to spam, Ellis said, with Greeves adding there is a backlog of emails that have to be sent out but everyone should receive one.
County Commissioner James West asked if there are plans for a mass testing site. There have been discussions with PNC Arena and about using parks and community centers, said Ellis, but the county isn’t receiving enough vaccines to warrant a mass vaccine event. That could change in the coming months.
Thousands added to waiting list
By about 3 p.m., Wake County had added 17,792 people in Group 2 and 1,911 people in Group 1 to its waiting list.
That included Frank Holmes and his wife, Rita, who are both over 65. Frank Holmes has been trying to schedule an appointment for days, he said, checking UNC Health’s YourShot.org about a dozen times only for there to be no appointments available time and time again.
Holmes said he started calling the phone number and trying to access Wake County’s website at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. The web portal loaded at about 9:15, Holmes told The News & Observer.
A short while later, both Frank and Rita Holmes were on the waiting list, confirmed by emails from Wake County saying they are eligible for vaccine as part of Group 2 and that they will receive another email when it is time to schedule an appointment.
Holmes, who spent 42 years selling surgical devices, said he is familiar with the Food and Drug Administration approval process and is convinced the agency would only sign off on something if it were safe. He also cited the vaccine’s rates of effectiveness against COVID-19, with clinical trials showing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is about 95% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 after two doses and the Moderna vaccine is 94.1% effective.
Without a vaccine, Holmes said, “What else can you do? Stay away from everybody, wear a mask and stay at home, I guess.”
How Wake County’s registration works
When people sign up or call to get on the wait list, they’ll be asked for their age, whether they are a health care worker and whether they have an established primary care provider and their contact information. Those will be used to determine who is at the highest risk and should receive the vaccine first. People may be guided to local hospital systems, where they might already be patients or receive primary care.
When the county’s vaccine supply reaches that person’s point on the wait list, they will receive a phone call, email or text message notifying them that it is time to schedule an appointment. They will also receive an invitation to register for North Carolina’s Coronavirus Vaccine Management System, which is used to register recipients and track doses.
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 9:29 AM.