Long Islanders and other eligible New Yorkers hoping to book a COVID-19 vaccine online on Sunday reported to a state website and found it difficult to keep up with the large number of requests.
“Due to high volume, no appointments can be made for this place at this time. Please try again later,” reads a message Sunday on the state’s Am I Eligible website in response to a request for a vaccination appointment at Stony Brook University or the ten other state-run vaccination sites.
In a statement Sunday afternoon, state health officials said the increase in appointment requests was no surprise and that the site was fully functional, with 350 vaccinations per minute.
“As expected, the site is experiencing a huge increase in volume after appointments opened this morning for New Yorkers with comorbidities and underlying conditions,” the statement said. “We warned New Yorkers that this would happen last week, and to mitigate any problems, we added an online waiting room and announced our new appointments on an ongoing basis.”
As the new appointments will be available throughout the day, people should keep trying, even if the online waiting room is full.
Sunday was the first day that people with cancer, high blood pressure and other medical conditions who are at greater risk for severe COVID-19 can book an appointment on the Am I Eligible website. The state’s vaccination effort is hampered by a limited amount of doses amid intense demand.
Laura Curran, chief executive of Nassau County, said her office works with partners, including the Federal Qualified Health Centers, to get vaccines for people with comorbidities.
“We are exploring additional partnerships to further expand our vaccination campaign, and we will give priority to allocating a portion of our weekly stock to vaccinate this new group,” Curran said in a statement Sunday. “We have not wasted a single dose at our vaccination centers in the Nassau County Department of Health, and we will continue to use 100% of the doses we receive quickly.”
Curran said the province’s information technology team is working on a system that allows people to sign up for a vaccination appointment and, if necessary, put them on a waiting list for the next available.
Meanwhile, the number of new, confirmed COVID-19 cases across the country continues to decline according to new numbers released Sunday.
The state recorded 8,316 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, including 732 in Nassau and 771 in Suffolk.
The percentage of positive cases, of 234,708 test results on Saturday, was 3.14% for the state and 4.5% for Long Island.
According to government statistics, this is the lowest daily positive percentage in the country since the end of November.
“Thanks to New Yorkers’ actions – such as wearing masks, maintaining distance and making smart decisions – hospitalizations and positivity are still going down, and the holiday boom is in our rearview mirror,” Cuomo said in a statement Sunday. “The vaccine is the weapon that will win the war against COVID, and we have the infrastructure to deliver hundreds of thousands more shots once the stock is available,” he said.
Officials on Saturday recorded 107 new deaths from COVID-19, including six in Nassau and nine in Suffolk.
According to the state, 37,118 New Yorkers have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
Lisa joined Newsday in 2019 as a staff writer. She has previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press on politics, government and general commissions.