BOSTON (WHDH) - A new vaccine appointment pre-registration system that Gov. Charlie Baker says will alleviate “some of the heat and some of the sting” that the old booking tool had generated for scores of annoyed residents went live in Massachusetts on Friday.
The system that the state developed with Google will allow any resident, regardless of their eligibility, to fill out a form online or by phone and then get placed into a virtual waiting room for the next available vaccine appointment.
People will then get a confirmation via their preferred method of contact and receive a weekly update about their appointment status. Residents can opt out of their pre-registration at any time if they secure an appointment elsewhere.
When an appointment becomes available at a mass vaccination site, people will be notified and will have 24 hours to accept the appointment once it is offered to them. If an appointment is not accepted after 24 hours, the resident will go back into the queue to wait for another appointment.
The pre-registration form also allows family members, caregivers, or other companions to fill out the form on behalf of older residents.
Anyone unable to use the website can also call 211 to pre-register.
Residents who are not currently eligible for the vaccine will be notified when their eligibility changes.
This particular system will initially only be available for appointments at mass vaccination sites, Baker noted.
Baker also warned that eligible residents who pre-register for a shot may not be able to get the vaccine for several weeks because the demand for it far exceeds the available supply.
“In that context, creating a pre-registration system that makes it possible for people to register and then know where they are in the queue and that they will be notified when they are eligible and an appointment is available for them to book takes some of the heat and some of the sting out of what the supply shortage does,” Baker said earlier this week.
The new Google-operated site will not completely replace the Vax Finder site developed by PrepMod, which infuriated the masses when it crashed last month just as one million residents became eligible to book appointments.
The Vax Finder site will continue to allow residents to book appointments at local and regional vaccination sites.
Baker said he is confident that the new pre-registration system will be capable of handling high web traffic, unlike the Vax Finder site’s dreaded wait times.
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