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A Walgreens store in Louisville, Kentucky.
(Bloomberg) -- Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.'s Covid-19 vaccine signup page couldn't be accessed by some users Tuesday as people rushed to secure an appointment.
Clicking the link to search for a shot turned up an "updates in progress" message Tuesday morning. The page then appeared to work until a user clicked on "sign in" and received an error message saying the service is currently unavailable.
The online scheduler was temporarily down because of an influx of user volume and the drugstore chain expected to have it back up "momentarily," Walgreens spokeswoman Kelli Teno said in an email.
The problems came just days before Walgreens is set to expand Covid-19 immunizations across the U.S. through a federal program that will send 1 million doses of vaccines to almost two dozen pharmacy chains.
Some people who said they were trying to use the Walgreens site expressed frustration on social media Tuesday about not being able to access it. One Twitter user who identifies as Tim McBreen said he received an email saying vaccine is available at stores in his area only to find the website was unavailable.
"Walgreens vaccine site crashes. I, like many, got email saying vaccine is available at stores in area. Only problem is their site crashed. Nice message saying that updates are in progress which means either nobody did a volume test or was ready for this announcement," the tweet said. The user did not immediately respond to Bloomberg's request for comment.
Tweet
Walgreens said it's working to resolve the matter as soon as possible and apologized for any inconvenience in response to questions about its preparations and how it will ensure the issues do not arise again.
Vaccination Campaign
From crashed websites, queues clogged with thousands of people and systems unprepared to account for doses shipped and administered, technical issues have roiled the U.S. vaccination campaign since it began in December. The Trump and Biden administrations have touted pharmacies as avenues to offer vaccinations at thousands of convenient locations across the country.
Walgreens's signup page has been criticized by some users for being overly complicated. In response, the company has been making updates every few days.
Sites of other pharmacy chains participating in the federal program appeared functional ahead of the launch, including CVS Health Corp., Costco Wholesale Corp., The Kroger Co. and Rite Aid Corp.
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