Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
More outages for Broward vaccine site
Seniors deal with issues signing up on Sunday
A hefty dose of patience was required Sunday for seniors hoping to use the state Department of Health’s Broward County site to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccination.
People 65 and over can make an appointment on the site at browardcovidvaccine.com. But on Sunday, the site had some rocky moments where it went offline, came back online, then went offline again. The site also crashed on Wednesday, overwhelmed by the number of people trying to sign up.
Early Sunday morning it crashed again, but came back online at 6:21 a.m., health department officials announced on Twitter.
By 9 a.m. it was down again — and back up 12 minutes later.
Then, at 9:46 a.m. came another tweet announcing the site was down and would be back up in about one hour. At 5 p.m., the site was still down.
The Broward Health
Department posted another tweet shortly before 4 p.m. saying anyone with an appointment who was not served at the state-run vaccination sites on Sunday would be contacted and rescheduled.
One man sent an email to the South Florida Sun Sentinel Sunday afternoon saying the Vista View Park site in Davie was shut down early because they ran out of the vaccine.
“Police turning away hundreds of cars,” he said. “Police saying overbooked and ran out of vaccine. We were very, very upset!”
Jason Mahon, spokesman for the Florida Department of Health, could not be reached for comment Sunday.
“The state’s had awhile to prepare for this and the fact that they can’t even get basic logistics figured out is extremely concerning and frustrating,” Broward Vice Mayor Michael Udine said. “The way this has been rolled out has been really concerning on a lot of levels. Setting up a website should not be a huge issue. We need to get a larger supply of the vaccine, but how are we going to get it into people’s arms if they can’t sign up [for an appointment]?”
Seniors logging onto the site Sunday were greeted with this message: “We sincerely apologize. This site has been taken down for maintenance in order to serve you better. Thank you.”
Florida isn’t the only state experiencing technical woes.
In Indiana, a COVID-19 vaccine enrollment website run by the state crashed in mid-December after being overwhelmed by healthcare workers trying to sign up.
In Massachusetts, a signup site run by the state’s largest hospital system also crashed amid a surge in demand.
And in Houston, the city health department’s phone system crashed two weeks ago after getting more than 250,000 calls from people trying to sign up for vaccinations.
One South Floridian irked by the glitches here tweeted: “How is it that in 2021 I can log onto a computer, order and pick up a pizza in less than 30 minutes but you can’t develop of system that doesn’t crash and also allows seniors to register without waiting in five hour plus lines without any hassle?”
Another tweeted: “Unbelievable! We all knew vaccines were coming … u would think broward county would plan in advance and test their systems so it doesn’t crash!!!”
Vaccines are available by appointment at the following locations:
Tradewinds Park
3600 W Sample Rd., Coconut Creek.
Hours: Sunday-Thursday (Closed Friday, Saturday): 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Site Opens: Sunday, January 3, 2021
Vista View Park
4001 SW 142nd Ave, Davie Hours: Sunday-Thursday (Closed Friday, Saturday): 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Site Opens: Sunday, January 3, 2021
Markham Park
16001 W State Road 84, Sunrise
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday (Closed Sunday, Monday): 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Site Opens: Tuesday, January 5, 2021
Central Regional Park 3700 NW 11 Place, Lauderhill
Hours: Monday-Friday (Closed Saturday, Sunday) 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Site Opens: Tuesday, January 5, 2021
Testing is no longer being offered at Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale to allow for the site to be transitioned into a vaccine administration site. Operational details are still being worked out with the intent of offering vaccines as early as Thursday.