Outages plague new children's vaccination booking system as hotline crashes

A booking system for children’s Covid-19 vaccinations has been unable to cope with demand shortly after launching.

Parents in Victoria have been left frustrated by outages in a newly launched vaccination booking system for children aged 5-11.

A booking hotline run by the state ceased taking calls late in the afternoon due to the “high volume” of parents seeking vaccines.

Those trying to book online also reported mixed results, with some experiencing website crashes, while others were able to secure a booking, according to The Age.

The system launched on Wednesday after being delayed due to technical issues.

Children aged 5-11 in Australia will be eligible for Covid-19 vaccines from 10 January 2022.

There has been a huge spike in children testing positive to Covid-19 in Victoria, with more cases expected as infection numbers in the state soar to more than 17,000.

There was a “huge increase” in children testing positive to the virus at the Royal Children’s Hospital clinic, according to paediatrician Dr Laila Ibrahim.

The clinic had a two per cent positive rate last month, Dr Ibrahim told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday.

“Just in a few days in January, this proportion has gone up to 30 per cent. That’s a huge increase,” the paediatrician said.

Acting Premier Jacinta Allan has not revealed which additional measures the government may use to stop the spread of Covid. Picture: David Crosling / NCA NewsWire

However, only a small amount of children were admitted to hospital and they mostly had underlying health issues, she said.

For parents of children who tested positive and are mildly unwell, Dr Ibrahim said they should stay at home in comfortable and familiar surroundings.

She also urged people to have their children vaccinated as soon as they were eligible.

“Many of our children will test positive in the coming days, but the vast majority will be mildly unwell and they can be cared for at home,” Dr Ibrahim said.

“There will be some children who will be severely unwell and will need hospital care, so let’s get our children vaccinated.”

Acting Premier Jacinta Allan announced the vaccination booking system for children aged five to 11 would open on Wednesday at 1pm.

Children will soon join the queues of people who are being vaccinated across Melbourne. Picture: David Crosling / NCA NewsWire

The system to book pediatric vaccines at state-run clinics was due to go live earlier this week but a technical glitch delayed the launch.

“It’s been a really challenging time for our youngest Victorians,” Ms Allan said on Wednesday.

The acting premier noted children had been faced with remote learning and cancelled birthday parties.

They will now have access to vaccines at 18 state-run centres.

The government has also secured an extra 10 million rapid antigen tests on top of an existing order to help battle Covid-19 as it sweeps the state.

“I’m pleased to confirm that the number is now 44 million rapid antigen tests, as an additional 10 million tests have been secured in recent days by the Victorian government,” Ms Allan said.

The first batch of tests will arrive in the coming days, with further details about distribution to follow.

Children aged five to 11 can now book in for a Covid vaccine. Picture: Andrew Henshaw / NCA NewsWire

A pilot program is in place across several testing sites, handing out rapid tests to asymptomatic people in the line for a PCR swab.

But the health department warned people not to show up at a testing site in a bid to get one of the rapid antigen tests.

Victoria reported a mammoth 17,636 Covid-19 cases and 11 deaths on Wednesday.

There are 591 people in hospital with the virus and 106 in intensive care units, including 20 on ventilators.

That is an increase of 15 per cent, up from 516 Covid patients in hospital the previous day.

There were just under 60,000 tests carried out in the past 24 hours, with the state’s active cases rising to 51,317.

The Victorian government is considering introducing additional restrictions to stop the spread of the virus, but Ms Allen did not elaborate on what those could include.