Fixes for Arizona COVID-19 vaccine registration website are in works

PHOENIX – The Arizona Department of Health Services is responding to complaints by making its online COVID-19 vaccination registration system more user friendly, the agency’s leader said Wednesday.

“I completely agree with their frustration,” Dr. Cara Christ told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead show.

“I had to use the system myself to register some family members who had difficulty with it as well. … We know how difficult it is.”

Christ said one much-anticipated fix is coming soon: Users will only see dates with available spots. Currently, users have to click from date to date in search of openings.

“That was one of my biggest complaints was, ‘I don’t want to go in and check days that don’t have appointments. Tell me when the first appointment is or tell me what days have appointments available,’” she said.

“That will be going live next week.”

Another common complaint is that users have to repeatedly fill out forms during their search.

“We are hoping to be able to also put a fix that you don’t have to re-enter every time you go back a screen,” Christ said.

“So we are listening to that customer feedback because a lot of us had our very own frustrating issues with the website.”

The state health department website has a vaccine-finder page with a map of active and pending locations and information about registration.

As of Wednesday, 518,125 doses had been administered in Arizona, with 79,026 getting both doses, according to ADHS.

Only people in phase 1A (front-line health care workers, emergency medical services workers and staff and residents at long-term care facilities) or the priority segment of phase 1B (educators, child care providers, law enforcement and adults 65 and older) are eligible to register at state-run sites.

Eligibility can vary at sites run by counties and other distributors. For example, the age cutoff is 75 for priority 1B at Maricopa County’s points of dispensing.

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