New Appointments Coming To RI's State-Run COVID-19 Vaccine Sites

PROVIDENCE, RI — A limited number of appointments for Rhode Island's state-run coronavirus vaccine sites will open Tuesday morning, the Department of Health said. A total of 1,890 new slots will be added to the online portal starting at 9 a.m.

With vaccine eligibility now open to residents ages 60 to 64 and those 16 to 64 with certain health conditions, a large swath of Rhode Islanders are vying for a relatively small number of available vaccine appointments.

The number of new appointments added this week is lower for first doses because most of this week's supply is being used for second doses, a spokesperson for the Department of Health explained. There will be more first-dose availability next week, Joseph Wendelken said. This week, about 10,000 first-dose appointments will be added, compared to closer to 23,000 next week. More doses are expected to arrive from the federal government in the coming weeks, as well.

Starting Tuesday, some changes will be made to the VaccinateRI.org portal. New language has been added to clarify that some slots are not available because people are in the process of booking them, and adjustments have been made to the site to allow for more traffic. This change comes after the site briefly crashed Friday when the site had more than 2.5 million page visits after more appointments were added at 5 p.m.

A new feature is in development for the site that, when launched, will create a virtual waiting room on the site. This feature will address the problem of appointments appearing to be available even though people are in the process of booking them, the department said.

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