Despite slew of online complaints, Premier defends COVID booking site rollout

Ford vowed to have IT staff look into reports of "form has been tampered with" error message

While many people were able to book an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccine through the province’s newly established online portal on Monday morning, others still encountered issues. Many of those issues involved the error message “form has been tampered with.”

Premier Doug Ford said during a Monday media briefing that it may be chopped up to user error. “So far this morning 45,000 people were able to figure it out,” he said when asked about the issues plaguing some users, suggesting information wasn’t being entered properly. “I found out yesterday someone was trying to go in there on the trial and they weren’t entering it right. But it was pretty user-friendly.” He indicated one user’s issue stemmed from entering the URL improperly.

The “form has been tampered with” error message was acknowledged by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit which pointed out the province had yet to input all local clinic information, so appointments could not be made at those locations. The health unit indicated these problems were being addressed by Queen’s Park.

RELATED: “FORM HAS BEEN TAMPERED WITH” – MANY USERS HITTING ROADBLOCK ON FIRST DAY OF PROVINCIAL ONLINE VACCINE BOOKING

While the premier did vow to check in with the IT people associated with the operation of the site, he assured Ontarians some top minds were backing it. “We have some of the largest companies backing us up from the IBM’s, the Amazons, you name it, they’ve, they’ve tested this.”

Ford said to those encountering problems with the site should instead turn to their telephone, and call to book an appointment at 1-888-999-6488. “On the telephone line, they’re taking care of approximately 375 people a minute, which is pretty staggering.” A notice has since been added to the vaccine booking portal, giving the same advice.

“From this morning alone, tens of thousands more Ontarians can say they have an appointment,” he added.

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