COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Educators in the central Ohio area are being asked to pause attempting to register for the vaccine after issues with Kroger’s website.  

NBC4 reached out to Educational Service Center of Central Ohio and Kroger after receiving several reports from people that they were experiencing issues registering for the COVID-19 on the company’s website.  

A spokesperson with the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio released the following statement:

As Kroger works to stabilize the registration website, we are asking that all please pause in their registration attempts. Kroger will let us know when their end is settled and we will message you with a time to resume registration.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Kroger released the following statement to NBC4:

The Kroger Health portal is working, we ask for customer’s patience as thousands are working to schedule appointments for the coming week.  As of noon today, we have successfully registered over 50% of the available vaccines for next week’s clinics in Hilliard and Reynoldsburg.

Later Sunday, Kroger released a second statement, adding that some appointments were submitted multiple times and that they are working to remove all the duplicate appointments, freeing up more slots.

The Kroger Health portal is working but experiencing significant volumes of traffic at this time. We ask for patience as thousands of educators and staff are working to schedule appointments for the coming week. We are confident everyone will be scheduled and vaccinated in accordance with the proposed timeline for Franklin County.

In a few instances, appointments were submitted numerous times this morning resulting in duplicate appointments.  At this time, we are working to remove all duplicate appointments which will open more appointment times and we will let the schools working with us know as soon as they can begin scheduling again.

During his regular briefings last week, Gov. Mike DeWine provided further details on how vaccinations will be conducted for school personnel in the state. He said every public school district in the state except one has agreed to be part of the program, which includes having schools reopened for the option of full in-person learning by March 1. Private and parochial schools are part of the program, too.

About 55,000 doses of vaccine will be allocated each week in February for school vaccinations. DeWine said the program is designed for most personnel in a county to be vaccinated over a seven-day period.