GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — The day the state rolled out its COVID-19 vaccine expansion, several health departments are experiencing website issues.
Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale County Health Departments' website has been up and down throughout the day on Monday.
If you go to the website looking for vaccine information, you may see the message: "Error establishing a database connection."
Cobb and Douglas County are also experiencing an issue.
"We’re experiencing high traffic, which is causing some individuals to receive an error as they navigate while others experience lag time," a spokesman for Gwinnett, Newton & Rockdale County Health Departments said. "Overall, the site is up and functioning albeit slowly. So far we haven’t experienced a website outage; however, we’re working with our web host to increase bandwidth so that those experiencing issues don’t continue to have those problems."
The state health department echoed that statement.
"There are many districts experiencing website and phone issues due to the overwhelming requests for vaccination," a spokesperson for the Georgia Dept. of Public Health said. "We are asking media and the public to be patient as vaccination administration rolls out. This is an unprecedented effort and every state is dealing with similar problems."
The state moved into a new phase of vaccine distribution, Phase 1A+, which expands availability to adults over the age of 65 and their caregivers as well as more types of first responders, such as 9-1-1 operators and volunteer firefighters.
That means a far larger pool of people now who will be able to seek out the vaccine.