Hamilton’s COVID-19 vaccine hotline deals with overwhelming demand
- Michael Kras
- 03 Mar 2021
For Hamilton’s older seniors, the effort needed to get through on the city’s COVID-19 hotline to register for their vaccine has been nothing short of Herculean.
As vaccine bookings opened for locals aged 85 or older this past weekend, the city dealt with an outpouring of eligible seniors eager to book their inoculation, resulting in an overwhelmed phone line that couldn’t keep up with the demand and left countless locals frustrated.
COVID-19 Vaccine Update: Please ONLY call the COVID-19 Vaccine Hotline at (905) 974-9848 to register those age 85+ for a vaccine. There are many people trying to get through, so please be patient. Do not call any other numbers or locations. #HamOnt pic.twitter.com/XWxxIXxHjv
— City of Hamilton (@cityofhamilton) March 1, 2021
Even with the capacity to field up to 150 calls at once and over 2,000 eligible residents in the 85+ category registered for their vaccines so far, many frustrated residents were nonetheless met with dropped lines and busy signals through much of the weekend; an issue the city has said they are working to address.
“Hamilton Public Health Services (HPHS) understands that there has been frustration and dissatisfaction with the hotline over the weekend and today from members of our community,” reads a statement from the city. “Public Health apologizes for the distress this has been causing.”
To help address the issues, public health and the city’s IT team are working with the hotline’s telecom provider to increase capacity so the hotline can handle a larger volume of calls at one time.
They have also extended the hotline’s hours of operation to 9 pm each night, and added more staff to answer calls to help reduce wait times.
In addition, the province is working on providing public health units with a new COVID-19 vaccine booking tool, currently set to launch on March 15th.
As this booking tool becomes available, vaccine registration will gradually open up to further local demographics, with those over the age of 80 able to book in the third week of March, those over 75 able to book starting April 15th, those over 70 able starting May 1st, those over 65 starting June 1st, and those over 60 starting July 1st.
Read the full release on the city website, and learn more about COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Hamilton here.
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