You can not book an appointment.
This is what some callers say they are told when they call the state’s vaccination system, even though government officials said Monday that the system was set up to help them get a slot.
Representatives did not say the appointments were not available because frustrated people told NJ Advance Media. But instead, callers said the workers did not have the ability to make appointments at all.
The confusion comes after Health Department Commissioner Judy Persichilli said at the governor’s coronavirus briefing that the hotline had begun making appointments.
She said more than 600 appointments had been booked by the hotline since Wednesday. According to her, the call center took more than 16,000 calls over the weekend, registered 514 people with the New Jersey Vaccine Scheduling System (NJVSS) and made appointments for 286 people.
“They started making first dose appointments last Wednesday,” Persichilli said, noting that she was not sure if second dose appointments would be made.
Faisel Muhammad of South Brunswick said he called the hotline on Tuesday and was turned down.
“The person told me to wait for the second email after I registered with NJVSS, that it would have a link to set up an appointment,” Muhammad said. “No phone appointments.”
Carol Rayside said when she called, a representative said “they can only register people and can not make appointments.”
Vincent Tamburro said his mother, aged 65, called the hotline and a representative told her “they do not know why they can not plan anything.” And when he tried the hotline himself, the representative said she could not even get into the scheduling system.
“We’re getting incredibly frustrated,” the Wanaque man said.
Jane, 72, who did not want to be named after her, said she had called the hotline several times.
“Initially, I was told that there were entrepreneurs to register and others to book appointments,” she said. “Once I was put on hold for about an hour waiting for an appointment operator, only to be disconnected. (During) another call I was told it was wrong. They just register. ”
When asked about the complaints, a spokesperson did not answer questions about what the representatives allegedly said, but said the supply of vaccines is limited and the demand is great.
“As the commissioner said in the briefing (Monday), callers are going through, people are being registered and appointments have been made for eligible individuals,” spokeswoman Nancy Kearney said. “As supply increases, more appointments will be available.”
She said the call center has the same access to make appointments available to the public, but that they can see all appointments in the state at once.
“As we will receive more and more vaccines from the federal government in the coming months, we expect more appointments to be available through the call center,” Kearney said.
Other hotline callers have reported other issues, including automated system issues.
Jack of Hunterdon County, who did not want to name his surname, said when he called, the system told him to print one if he was already registered and wanted to make an appointment.
‘You are told to hold a representative, then it says, since you did not answer, please hang up and call. What a joke, ‘he said. ‘If I think someone is going to talk to them when they are told to wait for the next representative, then silence, and the survey says that You did not answer, but depends. You are not given a question to respond to! ”
Still others said they were suspended for 45 minutes or longer, and then they were suddenly disconnected.
The call center, which is open seven days a week from 08:00 to 20:00, can be reached at (855) 568-0545.
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Karin Price Mueller can be reached at [email protected].