Close to 3,000 appointments have been made through Saskatchewan’s new COVID-19 vaccine booking system since it launched earlier this morning.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority reports 2,971 Saskatchewan seniors 85-years-old or older have booked an appointment. The tool opened at 8 a.m. on March 11th. About 84 per cent of those bookings were made online and over 100,000 have accessed the booking tool.

They add 16 per cent of appointments were booked through their phone line at 1-833-727-5829 which had an average wait time of 72 minutes.

SHA says some issues have been identified by SaskTel and are being addressed as quickly as possible. No other negative impacts were noted as a result of the launch.

Saskatchewan residents are encouraged to wait their turn for when their age group is able to access bookings. The province says anyone caught using falsified information to jump the queue will face a penalty.