The federal website where Americans can sign up for new health insurance saw a rush of traffic ahead of this week’s deadline to secure coverage by next year, an Obama administration official said on Friday.

Julie Bataille, communications director for the agency directing the website, said 880,000 people visited HealthCare.gov on Christmas Eve – which was the last day Americans could go online to select plans beginning January 1.

The website – which failed upon its initial launch in October and underwent a massive repair job in November – “met the mark and did exactly what it was supposed to do,” Bataille wrote in a blog on the Health and Human Services department website.