Clark County also struggles with ….

Clark County also struggles with a shortage of health care providers when compared to other counties, she said, with a ratio of one primary care physician for every 3,470 residents.

In addition, the county has large numbers of Amish and Menonnites who won’t accept any vaccinations because of religious objections.

“To put that population in perspective, last year the birth rate of Amish and Menonnite was 44.4 percent of total births in Clark County,” she said. “That’s a huge percentage of our population.”

Wussow said county health offi cials are well aware of the reasons why residents may be hesitant to get vaccinated, such as religious or political views and lack of access to health care.

“Eventually, we may reach a point when most, if not all, Clark County residents who want a vaccine will have had an opportunity to receive it,” she said, noting that the health department will continue to engage in outreach efforts to educate people about the benefits of being vaccinated against COVID- 19.

“But, of course, in public health, it’s not our place to change anybody’s mind on that,” she said.

Ultimately, though, the county’s explanations for why people are not getting vaccinated are based on anecdotal information, Ross said.

“We haven’t done in-depth surveys on why people are hesitant to get vaccinated,” he said.

The Hispanic immigrant population in the Abbotsford-Colby area also presents unique challenges to health officials who are trying to get as many people vaccinated as possible. Wussow said language barriers and concerns about immigration status can make outreach efforts more difficult, so health officials start by translating much of their material into Spanish.

The health department has also been working with the Abbyland Pork Plant in Curtiss to get its employees vaccinated.

For years now, Wussow said the department has been working with the company to get flu shots and childhood immunizations to employees and their families, so there’s already an existing relationship in place.

In her experience, Wussow said the Hispanic population is generally very receptive to getting vaccinated for other illnesses, so it’s just a matter of working through communication issues.

Ross said the county has worked with people who have regular contact with the Hispanic community, such as Fr. Tim Oudenhoven, a bilingual priest at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church, to get the word out among Hispanic residents.

Since January, the health department has been holding weekly drive-thru vaccination clinics in either Curtiss or Greenwood. Ross said those will now be held every other Thursday instead — in part because of decreased demand.

“Normally our appointment block would fill up very fast when we put them out on Friday afternoon (the week before a clinic date),” Ross said. “We’ve seen some decrease in the number of people signing up and an increase in the amount of time it takes to fill up the spots that are available.”

Based on weekly phone calls with area pharmacies and health clinics, private providers are seeing a similar decline in vaccine demand, Wussow said.

“They’re having a hard time filling up their appointment blocks, and their waiting lists are shrinking,” she said The county normally requests between 200 and 400 doses of the vaccine for a twoweek period, and the state fills about 66 percent of each request, Kelsey said. More vaccines may become available as demand dips in other parts of the state, she said, but if Clark County’s demand stays low, the health department may request fewer doses per week.

Wussow said people should not assume that the threat of COVID is over at this point, especially with new variants showing up in neighboring Minnesota.

“We are seeing a slow and steady increase in the number of cases, and the positivity rates is actually increasing as well,” she said. “It’s still pretty low, but I think vaccination is maybe giving people a false sense of security.”

Public health officials continue to emphasize other methods of controlling the spread of the virus, such as wearing face masks, social distancing and staying home when sick. Meanwhile, Wussow said her department is doing everything it can to get more people vaccinated, despite some deep-seated reluctance.

“Our numbers are not reflecting our outreach efforts by any means,” she said. “There are factors that are out of our control and working against us.”

To find out where and when you can get a COVID-19 vaccination, go to www.clarkcounty.wi.gov and click on “Vaccination Information.”