As Wisconsin prepares to open up vaccine eligibility to everyone 16 and older in Wisconsin starting Monday, vaccinators small and large are preparing to manage the influx as the state’s vaccine supply increases.
“Our great-grandchildren are going to be talking about the time when the scientists in 2020 did this thing that was considered undoable,” UW Health’s chief quality officer Dr. Jeff Pothof said with a chuckle. At UW Health in Madison, they’re giving out 2,000 shots a week. They expect that to increase–but the share of vaccines among a range of vaccinators means everyone will be getting more, he said.
“If UW Health doesn’t have it, that doesn’t mean nobody has it. It just means, look around and try to find other vaccinators,” Dr. Pothof explained. “They may have it, even though their ability to vaccinate might be a little bit lower.”
Which vaccines are responsible for the increase?
State officials said Tuesday that supply of the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer vaccines had largely leveled out. While they expected some small increases to their weekly allotments from the federal government, DHS deputy secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said they’d been told that supply had largely maxed out with the manufacturer’s capacity.
The state got an initial 48,000 allotment of Johnson & Johnson early in March before weekly supply dropped to about 6,000 in mid-March. However, last week’s shipment jumped to 34,000 and state official expect it to only increase from there.
“We expect to continue to see regular increases in that amount in the month of April,” Willems Van Dijk said.
Who’s doing the vaccinating?
From February to March while the share of vaccines steadily increased, the burden of vaccinations also evened out a bit between health care providers, pharmacies, local health departments, community clinics, and other vaccinators.
A News 3 analysis found pharmacy COVID vaccinations increased by almost 82% from February to March. From February 2 through March 2, DHS data indicates they gave out 196,683 shots; that number rose to 358,351 from March 2 through the 30th. Health care provider allotments increased by just 13%, from 449,974 to 509,902 shots for the same time period. In February, health care providers had given out half of the state’s vaccines in Wisconsin; in March, they gave out 40%.
Vaccines given out at community clinics more than doubled during that time frame, while the rate of increase at local and tribal health departments rose by 61%. Overall, Wisconsin increased vaccine administration by 42% for the same time period.
Major vaccinators prepare for rise in appointments
SSM Health is expecting a significant increase to their weekly first-dose shipments; currently, they’re giving out about 6,000 vaccines weekly.
“Next week for example, we expect our allocation of first doses to increase significantly; hopefully getting to a point where we can operate our vaccine clinics at full capacity,” SSM’s VP of Pharmacy Services Mo Kharbat explained. Out of their 18 locations around Wisconsin giving out vaccines, he hopes the added supply will be enough to open up some clinics in and out of Dane County to expanded hours for vaccinating, including extra days they wouldn’t normally be open.
UW’s self-scheduling portal is part of their preparation for the added supply, Dr. Pothoff said. The system has been up and running for about a week, with few issues.
Gov. Evers announced Tuesday that all adults 16 and up would be eligible to get vaccinated in Wisconsin, moving up the start date from May 1 as previously announced. Phase 1C–adults with any one of 20 underlying medical conditions–opened on March 22.
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