NHS Website Crashes Briefly Amid Rush For Vaccine Bookings

The NHS’s Coronavirus vaccine booking website experienced difficulties on Tuesday morning and reportedly crashed for a period of time.

The website crashed after the government allowed people aged 45 to 49 to schedule their coronavirus vaccination slot. The crash happened moments after the booking slots were opened, the Guardian newspaper reported.

The crash is the second IT setback for the government’s Coronavirus technology this week.

Apple and Google recently blocked an update to the NHS’ Covid-19 contact tracing app over a violation of their privacy rules.

Image credit: World Health Organisation

Problem resolved

According to the Guardian, users on Tuesday morning had been met with the message:

“The NHS website is currently experiencing technical difficulties. We are working to resolve these issues. Thank you for your patience.”

However shortly after the vaccine booking website was hit by the technical issues, the vaccines minister, Nadhim Zahawi, tweeted a single word “fixed”, showing the issue had been resolved.

NHS Digital was reportedly able to rapidly get the website back up and running on Tuesday morning, with all issues being resolved and people able to book appointments.

People wishing to book their vaccine appointment can do so here.

Vaccine success

The United Kingdom, along with Israel and the United States, is benefiting from the successful rollout of Covid-19 vaccines.

On Tuesday the government announced that more than 32 million people have been given a first dose of the vaccine.

Jabs have been offered to everyone aged 50 and over, health and care workers and clinically vulnerable, meeting the government’s 15 April target ahead of time.

This group accounts for 99 percent of all Covid-19 deaths during the pandemic said the government, so by offering them the vaccine, it is helping ensure the most vulnerable are protected from the virus.

Tom Jowitt

Tom Jowitt is a leading British tech freelancer and long standing contributor to Silicon UK. He is also a bit of a Lord of the Rings nut...

Recent Posts

TikTok US Sales ‘Hit $16bn’, ByteDance Nears Meta In World Revenues

TikTok reportedly brought in $16bn in US last year, while parent ByteDance made $120bn worldwide,…

16 hours ago

Bankman-Fried Deserves Up To 50 Years In Jail, Prosecutors Say

Ahead of sentencing prosecutors argue ex-FTX boss Sam Bankman Fried deserves up to 50 years…

17 hours ago

Senators Take Up TikTok Bill After Italy Fine Over Harmful Content

Senators consider bill restricting TikTok after rapid House approval, as Italy competition regulator fines company…

17 hours ago

AI Security Company Backtracks On UK Testing Claims

Security company Evolv backtracks on claims UK government tested its controversial AI security scanning systems

18 hours ago

Norfolk County Council Wins $490m Payout From Apple

Apple agrees to $490m settlement of class-action lawsuit led by Norfolk County Council for allegedly…

18 hours ago

McDonald’s International Outage Caused By Third Party

McDonald's says outage affecting thousands of locations across world caused by third-party tech provider carrying…

19 hours ago