Vaccination rollout starts out slowly in Clark County

With Clark County so far receiving relatively low numbers of COVID-19 vaccine doses — and some of those limited doses needing to go into the arms of people who have already received a first shot — the local rollout of what is expected to eventually become a widespread vaccination effort is starting slowly.

As of early this week, approximately 800 county residents have received first doses of the vaccine, but local officials cannot say how many more will have access to it in the near future.

Clark County is running another oneday vaccination clinic in Greenwood on Thursday, but appointments are described as “very limited” for several reasons. The main one is that a Feb. 4 clinic in Curtiss was cancelled due to a snowstorm, and the people who had appointments for that day have been mostly rescheduled for this week’s clinic.

Also, according to Clark County emergency management director John Ross, a good number of the available doses are being reserved for people who have already received a first shot. With the Moderna vaccine that has been given to most first-time shot recipients, a second dose must be administered approximately 28 days later, and Ross said the health department is trying to stay as close to that timeframe as possible.

Another ongoing problem for Clark and other counties is the limited supply of vaccine coming from the federal government. Brittany Mews, Clark County’s Health Department director, said the county gets far fewer doses than what it requests each week. “Roughly 25 percent of what we ask for is what we receive,” Mews said, and that percentage is higher than in some other counties. “The state is hoping it will increase, but it’s hard to say.”

Clark County bases its weekly request on the number of vaccines it expects it can administer in a oneday clinic and how many people expect to come through.

“We’re only supposed to ask for what we can use the following week,” she said.

So far, all the doses that have been distributed by the federal government have been given to people classifi ed as Phase 1A eligible, which includes healthcare workers, longterm care residents, emergency personnel and a few others. The eligibility was expanded recently so some classified as Phase 1B, including firefighters, police officers and residents age 65 and older. No vaccines have yet been administered to the general public.

Ross said anybody on the Phase 1A and limited Phase 1B lists can still try to schedule an appointment at a county clinic. Those have been scheduled weekly, and are planned according to what the county learns each week it will get for doses. That word usually comes by early Friday afternoon, Ross said, giving the county only a few days to plan a clinic and take appointments.

“I do know that’s short notice for the people, but we’re doing the best that we can with the number of doses we get,” he said. “We don’t want to get too far out over our skis and then we don’t get what we expect.”

Residents over age 65 have been able to get first doses at the recent county clinics. Mews said the county has no way of knowing how many Phase 1A people are in the county, but she said fewer of them are coming in each time so she expects that most of them who wanted a dose received one. That leaves more doses for elderly residents.

“Pretty much all the slots now are seniors,” Mews said.

As for when the eligibility list may expand further, Mews said that all depends on the vaccine supply. The state Department of Health Services has issued a rough timeline of the next expected expansions. The next eligible group will include those involved in education and childcare, and the health department expects it may be able to go to school sites for vaccinations in the next several weeks.

Information on future eligibility can be found at www.dhs.wisconsin. gov/covid-19/vaccine-about.htm.

As the county does not know until each Friday how much vaccine it will have available for the following week, Ross said residents should watch for health department updates before trying to arrange an appointment.

“The best thing they can do is watch the county website for updates on when clinics are coming,” he said.

Also, he noted, private providers and pharmacies are starting to receive doses for their patients, so residents who are eligible can try to get an appointment through them.

“We still encourage people to work with their providers,” he said. “The health department clinics, those aren’t the only game in town.”

As Ross understands the immunization protocols, private providers are also supposed to be limiting who can get shots at this time based on the same eligibility list as the county follows.

Ross said people will need to be patient as the federal government ramps up the distribution plan.

Meanwhile, while citizens wait for their vaccination opportunity, they should continue to be diligent to help limit the spread of COVID-19 in their communities.

“Even though we’re getting shots in people’s arms, we still need to keep pushing the mitigation measures,” he said, including face masks, social distancing, and the avoidance of crowds.

“I realize we’ve been at this for a year, but we can’t lose sight of what’s been working when we’re this close to getting back to normal,” Ross said.