Vaccination Reservations Possible for 2 Million People Per Hour... Proxy Booking and Simultaneous Access Restricted

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] The COVID-19 vaccination pre-reservation system will be able to handle up to 2 million reservations per hour. Proxy reservations or simultaneous access by others are not allowed.

The COVID-19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team (hereafter Promotion Team) announced on the 5th during a joint briefing with the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety that the pre-reservation system has been improved through public-private cooperation to resolve errors such as the 'system crash' incidents.

The Promotion Team expects that with server expansion and reallocation, as well as database (DB) optimization, smooth access will be possible, improving reservation processing performance from 300,000 to 2 million per hour.

According to the Promotion Team, during the pre-reservation for the general young and middle-aged group aged 18-49, starting on the 9th in the form of a '10-day rotation reservation system,' even if the maximum number of people access simultaneously, reservations will be completed within 30 to 50 minutes.

With the introduction of the '10-day rotation reservation system,' which divides reservation dates over ten days based on the last digit of the resident registration number's birthdate, the number of eligible reservists will be dispersed to about 1.9 million people (11.7%) per day out of 16.21 million as of midnight on that day, creating a distribution effect.

Based on the 10-day rotation reservation system, features such as 'diversification of identity verification methods' and 'restrictions on proxy reservations and simultaneous access' have also been introduced, enabling smoother access than before.

Identity verification can be done quickly through simple certificates instead of mobile phone verification, i-PIN, or joint/financial certificates. If certificates are pre-issued via applications like Kakao, Naver, or PASS, reservations become easier. Unlike before, identity verification must be completed first, followed by waiting in line for reservation.

Kim Eun-joo, Director of the Korea Intelligent Information Society Agency, advised, "When using simple authentication, certificates should be issued at least one day in advance to proceed with authentication on the reservation day without delay."

In particular, real-time status information for each identity verification method is displayed at a glance using a traffic light system: green (smooth), yellow (delayed), red (congested), and gray (unavailable), allowing reservists to check in advance and choose a less congested method.

Reservations are possible from 8 PM on the day to 6 PM the next day. Director Kim explained, "If you avoid the expected peak at 8 PM and use the system after 9 PM, you can make reservations more quickly."

When waiting in line for access, if many people are ahead, it is better to wait a little longer rather than reconnecting. Reconnecting may lengthen the reservation time.

Also, to prevent excessive waiting, proxy reservations are not allowed, and if one person attempts pre-reservation simultaneously on multiple devices, identity verification will be blocked for 10 minutes on devices other than the first one that completed verification.

This measure was also applied during the local government autonomous vaccination pre-reservations on the 3rd and 4th. As of the 3rd, smooth access without waiting was possible after an average of 5 minutes, and about 280,000 people (34%) made reservations within one hour.

The Promotion Team plans to expand identity verification methods and transfer the identity verification function, which was considered the biggest overload factor during system access, to a private cloud before the start of the '10-day rotation reservation system' on the 9th.

Once these follow-up measures are completed, the maximum processing capacity per hour is expected to increase to about 2 million, and reservation waiting times will be further reduced. Currently, the processing capacity is up to 1 million per hour.

For seniors aged 60 and above, proxy reservations by children or others will not be allowed in the reservation system. Proxy reservations will be possible as before until 6 PM on the 9th but will be prohibited from 8 PM onward.

A Promotion Team official stated, "We do not set separate reservation orders for specific groups; all citizens use the same (reservation system) screen equally. If it is inevitably difficult to make a reservation personally, telephone reservations are possible through the Disease Control Agency call center or local government call centers."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.