Day two of inoculating people at Spokane’s mass vaccination site at the arena has been less harried than day one.
Kelley Charvet from CHAS Health, which is in charge of administering the vaccines, says fewer people were scheduled for appointments and the traffic on the streets leading into the arena was better controlled.She says three thousand people made appointments in about two hours through the provider’s online appointment portal. Nearly 1,200 received shots Wednesday, more than twice what CHAS had planned.
“We, in the meantime, have been working with our vendor who provides the registration system to ensure that future go-live dates don’t have the same issues. Servers have been added," Charvet said. "What happened in Spokane actually took down their service nationwide. So that the amount of traffic that was going through their system yesterday. It overwhelmed them completely.”
CHAS is not currently accepting new appointments for vaccinations, but hopes to again on Monday, when it anticipates receiving its next shipment of vaccine from the state.
For those not able to register online, the state Department of Health is planning to have people trained to answer phones and questions from people looking to get appointments. That service was expected to be ready by the end of the day Friday, but now won’t be available until next Monday at the earliest.
Charvet says people who are inoculated at the arena will have the chance to register for their second doses during the 15-minute recovery period after their shots.