Several state and local governments have turned to online event invite platforms including Eventbrite and SignUpGenius to coordinate COVID-19 vaccine appointments in place of scheduling on websites, Bloomberg reports.
Numerous counties in Florida have rolled out Eventbrite while some Oklahoma government agencies and one New Jersey county are using SignUpGenius. The platforms replace appointment hotlines and websites that have crashed when overwhelmed by high amounts of online traffic.
"Signing up to get a Covid vaccine is like trying to get a Beatles ticket," said Jacob Saur, public safety director for Florida’s Manatee County. He told Bloomberg the demand for the shot in his county crashed the web sign-up sheet he had created.
Florida is piloting a scheduling system of its own in certain counties, but many of Mr. Saur's peers have called on Eventbrite because it was free and familiar. "As the state is getting vaccines, they’re pushing them out as fast as they can," he said. "When we get a large batch, I’m not going to do a first-come, first-served. We needed a quick way to schedule these people. We aren’t large schedulers, and Eventbrite came to mind and we used it."
Florida's Brevard County government recently decided to use Eventbrite when its phone lines stopped working at its local health department, a county spokesperson said, adding that it took them about three hours to set up the event, run tests and get approval.
On its website, SignUpGenius is offering "feature-packed subscription plans," to help people sign up for vaccines and schedule staff shifts and manage sites, according to the report. The platform is typically used to help people organize events such as carpools, bridal showers and potlucks.
Some New Jersey counties are operating their own appointment websites and Hunterdon County has been offering appointments via SignUpGenius.
Editor's note: This article was updated Jan. 6 at 6 p.m. CST.