“We made a mess!”: St. Petersburg residents massively complain about the unavailability of the covid information service “122”

The 122 service, designed to advise St. Petersburg residents with coronavirus, cannot cope with the load during the next wave of infection. The townspeople brought down in social networks anger at the structure under Smolny. Officials acknowledged the problem and promised to increase the number of operators.

In the comments in the official VKontakte group, St. Petersburg residents write either about the impossibility of getting through to the service, or about the lack of progress following the appeal to the number “122”.

“We made a mess! The doctors don’t come! Here is the peak activity. Because everyone submits a new application for a doctor’s call the next day. What is this nonsense for? Why, if the doctor did not come on the appointed day, the application is considered processed? – users gave an example of a problem.

One of the local residents tried unsuccessfully to get through to the service from 10 am to 2 pm the day before.

“As a result, with a temperature of 38, I reached the clinic, and there was a line from the street! I went back … I got through to 122 in the evening, the assistant hung up, there was silence in the receiver, I switched off, I called back, again the same thing, for the fifth time I filled out an application, but the SMS never came, today I call 122 to check the status, they say, “the status is not defined.” How is that at all?” – wrote a Petersburger.

As told in the service itself, a sharp increase in calls is observed on Mondays from 7 to 11 am, which provokes increased loads. Repeating this practice could lead to system failures, 122 representatives said.

“Technical possibilities for receiving telephone requests have been expanded by 2 times, and the number of operators has also been increased. Work was carried out to expand the capacity of lines with cellular operators. If earlier the Service could receive 3500 calls at the same time, then since January 30 this number has increased to 8000 calls. But even this amount was not enough. During peak hours, some subscribers today could constantly get short beeps, ”the service noted.

Petersburgers are encouraged to apply at any time, as operators work around the clock. At 11 a.m. on February 2, a Rosbalt correspondent was able to get through on the number 122.

The day before, 13,619 cases of COVID-19 were registered in St. Petersburg. A sharp increase in the daily incidence continues from mid-January.