| Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
State health officials and the Wisconsin National Guard are launching mobile COVID-19 vaccination teams next week to help expand access throughout Wisconsin.
The program, which begins Tuesday, will deploy nine mobile vaccination teams trained by the National Guard, as well as pharmacy volunteers and nursing students through a partnership with the University of Wisconsin System.
The teams will work with local health departments to provide vaccines to Wisconsin residents in the next phase of the state’s deployment, which includes police and fire departments. But officials hope to expand the pilot program to help with mass vaccination in the future.
“Our mobile teams will work to support these local and tribal health departments and their vaccination efforts, especially now that they are leading the coordination of placing the vaccine in the arms of our first responders, together with our un-affiliated health care providers,” Gov Tony Evers said Friday at a news conference. “This program will start with nine teams and we are looking forward to expanding from there.”
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Volunteers will be required to complete safety training and necessary instructions, officials said.
Local and tribal health departments will lead coordination efforts to vaccinate police and firefighters, as well as EMS and non-affiliated health care providers in their jurisdictions, state officials said.
“This pandemic has widened health inequalities across the state – we have seen how differences in opportunity, resources and access to quality health care have aggravated this public health crisis,” said Andrea Palm’s designated Health Services Department secretary in an announcement. “This is why this program is an especially critical tool in launching Wisconsin’s vaccination. The mobile vaccination initiative will help close gaps in accessibility and ensure that each location in Wisconsin will have the opportunity to protect itself against COVID-19.”
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Mobile teams will include 12 to 15 people per team, said Julie Willems Van Dijk, DHS deputy secretary. This includes people who register, administer the vaccine and stay with people to ensure that they do not have an allergic reaction.
“We are starting little by little to learn and we will grow as we go,” she said.
She said she hopes the teams will be able to do about 70 to 140 vaccinations a day.
“We will test this and see how it works and grow from there,” she said.
For now, mobile vaccination clinics are only open to people who are in Phase 1A or the first respondents and healthcare professionals approved in Phase 1B of the launch.
“At the moment, mobile clinics are not open to the general public, because the general public is not eligible for a vaccine,” said Van Dijk. “We are using this as an opportunity to test this model so that in the future, when larger groups of the population and, ultimately, the entire public are available, they can access any of the mobile clinics that will be provided in the communities.”
The announcement comes as Evers and state health officials face criticism from Republicans about the vaccine’s release in the state. But there is also concern that the federal government does not have a reserve of COVID-19 vaccines.
Major General Paul Knapp, Wisconsin’s deputy general, said in a statement: “Our citizen soldiers and airmen in the Wisconsin National Guard have been an integral part of the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and we are honored to continue to serve our fellow citizens. thus. “
The University of Wisconsin System said it would provide a $ 500 tuition credit to students who help during the pandemic, to qualified students who volunteer to make vaccines.
“UW nursing and pharmacy students can provide critical help to vaccinate Wisconsin residents,” said UW System President Tommy Thompson. “We are pleased to offer this tuition credit and appreciate the partnership with Governor Tony Evers as we demonstrate once again the idea of Wisconsin in action – where there is a problem Wisconsin faces, the UW system is part of the solution.”
Contact Mary Spicuzza at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @MSpicuzzaMJS.