Problems with vaccination booking site fixed, says Yukon government

Whitehorse residents 18 and older are once again able to book an appointment for their first shot of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine.

On Monday morning, appointments between March 8 and 20 in Whitehorse opened up, including for residents in the neighbouring communities of Ibex Valley, Marsh Lake, Mendenhall, and Mount Lorne.

Within the first 30 minutes, 1,100 appointments were booked on the territorial government's website, according to Yukon Health department spokesperson Pat Living.

"We're really pleased with the interest that people have in getting vaccinated," she said.

The tool for booking appointments on the website stopped functioning last Thursday, soon after it was announced that vaccination appointments in March were open to all eligible adults in the city.

"We think we have solved the issue," Living said.

"We do have people who are monitoring constantly just to make sure that [the site] doesn't crash."

She said on Monday afternoon that 7,915 appointments had been booked for the 18+ segment in Whitehorse since last week, and 21,773 appointments had been booked in total in Yukon since Jan. 12.

Living said that appointments for the first week of March for people in the 18+ segment were all booked by Friday.

Those vaccinations are scheduled to start on March 1 at the Yukon Convention Centre, which will be open daily except Sundays.

Other people, including high-risk health-care workers, those 60 and older in Whitehorse and neighbouring communities, and residents of other Yukon communities, have already received their first and, in a relative few cases so far, second shots.

Vaccination appointments are bookable based on delivery dates for vaccine doses, which is why future dates aren't available yet for the 18+ segment, Living said.

"We have been very clear that if you get a first dose, a second dose is going in the fridge for you," Living said.

She noted that the Yukon government expects to receive another 16,100 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this month.

The aim is to vaccinate 800 to 1,000 people a day, she said.

The territorial government anticipates allowing walk-in appointments in Whitehorse starting in the third week of March. 

According to the government's website, 11,850 vaccine shots had been administered as of Friday, including 1,223 second shots.

Some say online vaccine portals could shut out most vulnerable

4 years ago

Duration 2:01

As vaccinations ramp up in Canada, many provinces are talking about using online portals to help organize and register people for their shots. But some people worry that the Canadians who are most vulnerable and have the greatest need for the vaccine could end up getting lower priority.