Coronavirus: vaccine portal for aged 59 and 60 opens Friday, for 61 and over on Saturday

Only people aged 59-60 will be eligible to book a slot for a Covid vaccination on Friday, 9 April, the health ministry has said.

In a press release issued late Thursday evening, the ministry said that on Friday the vaccination portal – where people log on to book an appointment – will be open from 8am to 8pm and only for persons aged 59 to 60.

In total 15,020 appointment slots will be made available on the portal on Friday.

Persons aged 61 and over will not have access to the portal on Friday but will be able to book on Saturday. Further details about Saturday’s bookings would be announced over the next 24 hours.

The ministry said that up until April 7, 124,165 people have received one dose of a Covid vaccine, and 50,461 have received both doses.

So far the first dose of the vaccine has been administered to 9,788 people classed as vulnerable.

The changes regarding access to the vaccination portal after an apparent system overload occurring on Wednesday morning, when the system crashed a few minutes after opening due to heavy traffic.