The health ministry announced Friday it was making 15,000 vaccination slots available on Saturday for people aged 57 and 58 only

The vaccination portal will be open from 8am until 8pm, the ministry said.

No slots will be available through the portal for people aged 59 and above at this stage, the ministry said.

The change was necessary to ensure continuation of the vaccination programme and because the vaccination portal’s technical problems had not been overcome, it said in a statement.

The portal crashed on Thursday because of heavy traffic.

“Until the technical issues are resolved … appointment allocation will be for new age groups only that will be announced beforehand,” the ministry said.

The ministry said its aim was to restore the previous process as soon as possible so that older people who did not make an appointment would be able to do so.