BUFFALO, N.Y. — People with certain medical conditions can now make vaccine appointments in New York State, but 2 On Your Side received several emails over the weekend from viewers saying they were having problems with the state's vaccine website.
If you're trying to get an appointment to get the COVID-19 vaccine, you're probably familiar with the state's COID-19 vaccine website. You click "check eligibility" and you'll see the list of state clinics and whether they have any appointments available.
Pharmacies are focusing on the 65-plus age group, so if you have a comorbidity, this state website is where you will probably be going to get an appointment for now. Each New York county is also coming up with a plan.
On the New York State vaccine website, click "get started," fill out the form, and answer some questions.
The first question after you type in your birthday and zip code should be, "Do you have a comorbidity or underlying condition as defined by the New York State Department of Health?"
But, 2 On Your Side heard from several people who say they got to the end of the list of questions and were never asked about medical conditions. One viewer said that on the New York State website, "'Am I Eligible' doesn't let you sign in for health issues? I thought as of 8:00 AM today (Sunday) you could? I'm confused."
If that happens to you, you might have the old version of that website pulled up on your computer. The state says you might need to refresh your browser, and to see the updated website you might need to clear your cache. Here's how to do that on Internet Explorer. Go to settings - that's the gear icon at the top, then click on internet options, then general, and choose the option to delete your browsing history. Be sure to close out of Internet Explorer, and go back in. That should work and the correct questions should appear on your screen.
Or you can use a different web browser. There are probably several already on your computer.
To try refreshing your website using another method, you can also try holding down the "control" key while pressing the "F5" key at the top of your keyboard to get the updated page to load. That should force the web browser to refresh.
After that, you should be able to schedule an appointment, but with more than 10 million New Yorkers now eligible, and the supply still limited, appointments are limited. You must have an appointment to have a vaccine no matter where you go - state clinic, county clinic, the hospital, the VA, or a pharmacy.
Also, before you leave your first appointment, make sure you schedule your second appointment for your second dose of the vaccine while you are there. After you get your vaccine, there will be people there to help you schedule your second vaccine dose. It will be at the same clinic where you got your first dose.
If an appointment is not available on the state's website when you try to schedule one for your first dose, try going to the website at various times on various days of the week.