WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — With a third COVID-19 vaccine on its way to Wisconsin and a new group of residents eligible for the shots, health officials in Marathon County say residents should feel good about where we are at in the fight against the disease.
“We are making good progress in getting our residents vaccinated,” said Burrows. “I think we are on an improving trend. It is still going to take some time, but I think the Johnson and Johnson vaccine being available is really a boost to getting our teachers and our 65 and over populations vaccinated.”
Burrows says the state did get a nice surprise this week when it was announced that they would be getting 47,000 doses of the single-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which means each recipient of that vaccine will have immediate protection.
It’s unclear how many of those doses will be coming to Marathon County.
As far as getting teachers vaccinated, Burrows says her department has assigned each school district in the county to a healthcare provider who will work with them to get staff vaccinated.
“[That provider] will get them vaccine. So it’s up to the district administrator and the healthcare provider to schedule when those vaccines will be administered,” she said.
At this time Burrows says because of that system the County doesn’t see the need to step in and take over the vaccine distribution.
She does expect vaccine providers will continue to focus on the 65 and older population before turning to educators and other newly-eligible groups. As of Monday, about 40% of those over 65 had received at least one dose of vaccine, a number that lags behind some other counties in the region.
Burrows emphasizes that residents shouldn’t wait for one version of the vaccine or another, as they all protect against serious illness.
“If you’re vaccine-eligible now you should be contacting your healthcare provider to make sure you are on their registry list. You will have to wait, but they will contact you when they have vaccine available and schedule an appointment with you,” she said.
Also on Tuesday, it was announced that a Merck, rival to Johnson and Johnson, would be working with the company to produce more of the single-shot vaccine, which would help speed up production and distribution. After news of that broke, President Biden said it’s possible that the US would have enough vaccine for all adult Americans by the end of May, two months earlier than previously thought.
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