All 6,000 vaccine slots this week for Minnesotans ages 65+ filled

(FOX 9) - The Minnesota Department of Health says all available COVID-19 vaccination appointments for adults 65 years old and older at the nine pilot clinics across the state have been now been filled.

The online portal opened at noon Tuesday for Minnesotans age 65 and older to schedule appointments for both the first and second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. There were appointments available for nearly 6,000 Minnesotans 65 years old and older. Additional appointments were reserved for nearly 6,000 teachers, school staff and child workers.

Those people with scheduled appointments will receive their first of two vaccine doses at one of the nine pilot clinics beginning Thursday through Saturday. The pilot clinics are located in Anoka, Brooklyn Center, Fergus Falls, Marshall, Mountain Iron, North Mankato, Rochester, St. Cloud and Thief River Falls.

More appointments will be made available on Tuesday, Jan. 26.

Minnesota’s coronavirus vaccine online appointment portal overloaded on 1st day

Minnesota seniors rushed to the state's online portal for scheduling COVID-19 vaccination appointments Tuesday afternoon, causing the website to crash and calls to be dropped.

The online portal was immediately overloaded when it went live for the first time on Tuesday. People got error messages when they dialed two numbers provided by the health department. Online, many got stuck in a virtual waiting room before the website temporarily crashed.

State officials said the problem was not with the state's server but with the vendor, Primary Bio. Health officials said they never stopped taking appointments, but had to close the system to new users. They do not anticipate the website crashing in the future.