On the day people now need to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination to enter some non-essential businesses, the province’s portal to access those receipts was temporarily down for maintenance followed by an error, then a wait time.
Some trying to access their receipts Wednesday morning were met with a notice that said “sorry something went wrong. We are working on it.”
The notice comes after the province’s vaccine booking system website was down overnight for hours due to scheduled maintenance. It is the same website people use to access their COVID-19 vaccine receipts.
The maintenance is scheduled Tuesday’s from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. Wednesday, and from 11 p.m. Saturday to 9 a.m. Sunday.
Ontarians who still needed to download their documents had to wait until after 8 a.m. to access the website. The website was back up after 8 a.m. However, clicking to access the portal came with an error for some. It was resolved for most by 9 a.m., but then there was a wait time to get in due to thousands of users waiting in the “queue” to get their COVID vaccine receipt PDF.
Some users reported waiting 12 minutes to get in, with 20,000 or more people ahead of them in the virtual queue.
Alternatively some residents may already have a receipt in their email, sent by the government following their second dose.
As of Sept. 22, Ontarians looking to visit some non-essential settings will need to show proof of being fully vaccinated for a least 14 days, or a legitimate medical exemption, along with a piece of identification.
Starting on Oct. 22, one month later, a QR-based app is expected to launch to replace the current vaccination receipts.
Locations where proof of vaccine is needed to enter include:
Restaurants, bars, nightclubs, concert venues, gyms and fitness facilities, theatres, cinemas, racetracks, waterparks, TV and film productions with studio audiences, sports venues, casinos and gaming establishments, meeting and event spaces, strip clubs and bathhouses.
— With files from Nick Westoll