Several people have reached out to the news outlets, and taken to social media, saying their repeated attempts at downloading Ontario’s enhanced vaccine certificate have failed.
As of Monday, at 6 a.m., the certificate, which includes a QR code, became available to download for anyone, regardless of their birth month.
The province staggered the download rollout by birth month to prevent a system crash, but it seems the flood of people attempting to download the certificate on Monday morning has led to technical problems.
In a statement, a Ministry of Health spokesperson said that the site is “currently experiencing high volumes of downloads.
“A few users experienced a brief technical issue earlier today which has been resolved.”
A reporter who tried to download the code waited in a queue for several minutes before being redirected to the site.
After filling out the Health Card and date of birth information, the site went to a page that said: “Our services aren’t available right now. We’re working to restore all services as soon as possible. Please check back soon.”
The government is said to be also working on a way to embed a medical exemption for those who have received one for the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Ontario government is also expected to announce the loosening of some COVID-19 restrictions shortly.
Mr. Ford said Friday that those plans were currently being “finalized.”
“We are now able to finalize our plans to exit Step 3 of the Roadmap to Reopen and cautiously lift more public health measures.”
Under Ontario’s vaccine certificate program, only those who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 — or have a valid medical exemption from a doctor — can access certain settings, such as theatres, nightclubs and restaurant dining rooms.
As it stands, residents must show their vaccine receipt and photo ID to enter those facilities, but the province plans to replace that system with black-and-white barcodes and an app-based scanner.
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment played a key role in the development of the app to deliver it in near-record time to Ontario businesses.
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