Vaccination held at Smart Araneta in Quezon City. Photo from Philippine Daily Inquirer/Niño Jesus Orbeta
MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City has temporarily suspended its online bookings for COVID-19 vaccines as the website encountered heavy traffic.
According to an announcement from the city’s official Facebook page on Thursday night, the eZConsult website saw a high amount of traffic due to the people’s increased interest in getting vaccinated.
“Due to the heightened interest in the COVID-19 vaccination, the eZConsult website is experiencing heavy traffic and is unable to accept online bookings,” the Quezon City government said.
“Online booking is temporarily suspended as system updates are being done,” it added.
It was not immediately known when online bookings will resume.
The country is currently banking on COVID-19 vaccinations to be able to attain herd immunity by having 70 percent of the population vaccinated.
However, the country is facing an uphill battle as vaccine confidence among Filipinos remains low, coupled with the still unstable supply of vaccines.
Last November 2020, surveys showed that only 66 percent of Filipinos have expressed willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19, should vaccines become available — a number which has gone down as a recent survey showed that only 32 percent of the respondents are willing to be vaccinated.