After coming under fire on Friday, the Whitehorse COVID-19 vaccination clinic is opening its doors to residents aged 65 to 69.

The clinic and the government had been under heavy scrutiny Friday after two women who noticed the clinic’s online booking link showed it operating at less than 50 per cent capacity tried to get vaccinated on a walk-in basis – and were turned away.

One of them, Val Hodgson, is 69 years old.

“It’s abominable,” she told the Star that afternoon.

The announcement the clinic would extend the age range beyond 70+ was made late Friday afternoon.

While it was welcome news to many people, it didn’t come without a glitch over the weekend.

Apparently, people who are 69 were unable to book appointments online.

Whitehorse-area resident Florian Lemphers was one of the people alerting the Star to the situation.

“What made the whole thing frustrating was there was no local person to call, and of course sending email was frustrating, because we would get back an automated message saying that they only monitor the email from ‘9 to 5’ on weekdays,” he wrote in an email to the Star.

“By early afternoon on Saturday. I finally thought about emailing Dr. (Brendan) Hanley at his gov. email. To my surprise, by later that afternoon, Dr. Hanley actually responded, acknowledged the problem and said it should now be fixed.

“So some positive credit definitely needs to go to Dr. Hanley for doing whatever he did,” Lemphers said.

Jane Boutette, the manager of community nursing with the Department of Health and Social Services, told the Star this morning the problem has been fixed.

She also had several things to say about the clinic controversy.

“We are in a very fortunate position,” she declared, referring to the success of the clinics so far.

Boutette acknowledged the controversial situation on Friday, but declared “we are in a very fortunate position” in the Yukon with the vaccine rollout.

While it might appear as if the clinic wasn’t functioning at full capacity, Boutette said, the reality might be a little different.

An efficient clinic, she said, might very well not look busy to an onlooker, even if was running at full capacity.

It’s been more complicated setting up and running the COVID-19 clinics than the well-established flu clinics that have served as a template, she said.

The COVID clinics have required more logistics, more people and more training, she said.

Many people are still training on how to handle the virus, Boutette said. That’s one reason why it might appear to an onlooker that the staff at the clinics aren’t busy.

“I don’t think anyone would have directly compared the two clinics,” she said – although that was what Liberal MLAs, including Premier Sandy Silver, were doing before Christmas.

Boutette said that in particular, trying to manage the care of the Moderna vaccines is more difficult logistically, because it’s a more fragile product than influenza vaccines.

It’s also important not to spoil nor waste any doses, she added.

Therefore, it’s a balancing act between trying to estimate as closely as possibly how much vaccine is needed versus the number of people booking appointments.

People in the 65-69 age range, as well as 70+, are free to walk in without an appointment, Boutette said, clarifying what had been an issue of some confusion to residents. Appointments are still recommended

So far, there hasn’t been much of a problem with people booking appointments and not showing up.

“A lot of people are very eager to get this vaccination,” she said.

See letter.