Many municipalities began accepting reservations Monday for COVID-19 vaccinations, receiving a flood of phone calls that made it difficult for people to get through.
The Saitama city government prepared 166 phone lines to accept reservations from 9 a.m. for about 55,000 residents aged 85 and over. It was temporarily hard to get through, and as of 3 p.m., a total of 76,728 reservations and inquiries had been received.
A 90-year-old man from the city's Minami Ward visited a public health center because he had trouble getting through on the phone.
"I thought things would work out if I came here. Isn't there a better way to handle things, though?" the man said.
The Fukushima city government hired 23 people whose part-time income has been reduced amid the pandemic and assigned them to the city office and its branches to help 550 elderly people make reservations via tablet computers.
"I was worried, but they took good care of me," a 78-year-old woman said in relief.
In Yokohama, a second round of reservations was opened up for about 27,000 people aged 75 and over, through a website and by phone.
The online reservation slots for about 14,000 people were all booked in less than 30 minutes. In contrast, people struggled to get through on the telephone lines, which had been increased to 370, throughout the day. As of 6 p.m. Monday, only 10,935 telephone reservation slots, or 80% of the total, had been filled.
Also Monday, NTT East Corp. and NTT West Corp. introduced limits on the phone numbers of about 200 municipalities that were expected to get many calls, in an effort to reduce pressure on network bands. This led to callers hearing a voice announcement that the line was currently busy, instead of the usual ringtone.
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