Hamilton’s COVID-19 vaccine hotline ‘up and running’ after outage

Hamilton's COVID-19 vaccine hotline is back online after an outage Saturday morning.

The city announced Friday that Hamilton seniors aged 85 and older are set to begin receiving vaccines starting March 1 at the clinic opening at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton's West 5th campus.

Public health noted that Hamilton residents 85 years or older this calendar year who received care at a local hospital or hospital clinic in the past six months would be contacted for a vaccination appointment beginning on Friday.

Residents in the age group who don't fall into the above category were told to call 905-974-9848, and select option 7 to register for the vaccine.

Come Saturday, the line was down for most of the morning. The Spectator tried calling the number but it came up as not assigned," according to an automated message.

City spokesperson Jen Recine told The Spectator that a number" of city phone lines were affected by an outage" on Saturday. That included public health's COVID-19 hotline.

The line was up and running" again shortly after 11 a.m., according to Recine.

Fallon Hewitt is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach her via email: fhewitt@thespec.com