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Alberta MyHealth queue paused as thousands flock to obtain vax records

Last Updated Sep 17, 2021 at 12:44 am MDT

The online queue for Alberta's MyHealth app was so full, service had to be paused after the province announced a vaccine passport system.

EDMONTON – Albertans trying to access their vaccine records on the MyHealth app ran into some issues on Wednesday.

Since the province’s announcement Wednesday detailing a vaccine passport system, hundreds of thousands of Albertans have been trying to find their information online.

But many got stuck on the homepage.

The online queue had been paused to try and manage the volume of people looking to grab their vaccination printable vaccine record card, which was originally supposed to be available starting Thursday.

Those cards will now be available as of Sunday.

“One of the main reasons why I can suspect the MyHealth app services actually went down in the first place was that they were unable to predict the amount of volume that they were going to have in the first two or three days of the site going live,” said Carl Fransen, the CEO at the CTECH consulting group.

Fransen adds the site probably wasn’t trained to keep up with the large volume.

In a statement to CityNews, the government says:

“Significant upgrades to MyHealth Records are being made to improve access and respond to the high interest to view and download the printable card.

“Pushing the launch for a few days will lead to better service for people using MyHealth Records. The MyHealth Records support desk hours have been extended to better serve Albertans from 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. Monday to Friday and 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.”

The province says a scannable QR code option will soon be available for Albertans as well.

– With files from Kristy Kilburn