Wisconsin plans to vaccinate healthcare workers before year-end

MADISON (WKOW) – State health officials plan to have a small amount of the vaccine in Wisconsin by the end of the year.

Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm said at a press conference Tuesday that healthcare workers would be number one among those who receive the vaccine first here in our state.

Ultimately, each state will make the final decisions on who will receive priority doses, but a Centers for Disease Control & Prevention committee voted on Tuesday on recommendations to share with all states.

Officials say the first group should be primary care providers and support staff, as well as people living in nursing homes and other long-term facilities.

The federal government has said 40 million doses could be available by the end of the year.

Palm says what we get right now will depend on our population.

For now, Wisconsin plans to work with health care providers and hospitals as a first step.

“Partnering with health care providers, partnering with hospital systems to help distribute, to get these vaccines in the arms of their workers is a natural partnership for us,” Palm said. “It’s a natural extension of the work we’ve done with healthcare providers and hospitals throughout the pandemic.

The state is also part of a program that allows pharmacies to work with long-term care facilities to provide the vaccine when available. All qualified nursing facilities have signed this partnership, according to Palm.

While healthcare workers are expected to receive the vaccine by the end of the year, we still don’t know who will be next, or when the next cycle will occur. It all depends on how quickly it is manufactured and shipped.

“We’re actually in very close contact, like all states, with the CDC and with our federal partners, so that they have additional information or things change and are able to provide it to us as much as possible. quickly as possible and we in turn will be able to change and change on the ground in our planning and efforts to move forward, ”Palm said.