Address Issue With Online Portal Delays Ability To Schedule Vaccine Appointments

On Wednesday, the Oklahoma State Department of Health announced its new online COVID-19 vaccine scheduler was ready to go for the public. 

Some users said they ran into an issue that prevents them from the ability to make an appointment. 

“(We’ve) been waiting as everyone has for 10 months and don’t have any fear at all,” said Dennis Phillips. 

So, without hesitation, Phillips visited the state health department’s COVID-19 online vaccine scheduler. For a minute all was well until it came time for an address. 

“It did highlight that my address had to be corrected, so I corrected it, resubmitted it, got an error message again,” said Phillips. “(So, I tried) over and over and over. Just to make sure I wasn’t crazy. “ 

Phillips wasn’t crazy. It turns out Bing Maps, owned by Microsoft, hasn’t added his new north Edmond neighborhood yet. 

The vaccine portal was developed by Microsoft. 

“It’s not been a surprise to us that a lot of the maps apps don’t have this address,” said Phillips. “Over time, some of them have added our address and all of our neighbor's addresses are on here too, obviously Bing did not.” 

The Oklahoma State Department of Health acknowledges the issue, asking for patience while the portal undergoes updates late Thursday into early Friday. 

So far, nearly 200,000 people have registered using the portal and over 4,000 appointments have been made. 

Phillips and his wife know it will be sometime before they’ll be vaccinated. 

“Just sit back, relax, I’m sure they will get it taken care of, they’ll get it fixed and we’ll all be able to get registered and get our vaccination sometime soon,” he said. 

The Oklahoma State Department of Health said if you’re still waiting for an email from the portal, that could take up to 24 hours. 

Also, if you enter wrong information, you’ll need to use a new email address and try again.