States rush to open vaccines to the general public; WI is held on May 1st

MADISON, Wis. – Governor Evers said all people aged 16 and over will be eligible for the vaccine by May 1.

That was the term that the president instructed states to commit to. But that deadline has now spurred a race between an increasing number of states to make doses available much sooner.

More than 1.5 million people in Wisconsin have already received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

On Monday, the Department of Health Services opened eligibility for people aged 16 and over with certain underlying health conditions, but officials say they are postponing the availability of vaccines to everyone until May 1, while the offer remains limited.

“We certainly want to give people with these chronic diseases time to enter the vaccine system to make an appointment,” said Julie Willems Van Dijk, DHS deputy secretary.

In the meantime, at least 25 states have already opened eligibility to the general public or announced specific dates before May 1 when they plan to do so, including neighbors in Michigan, Illinois and Iowa.

FOX6 asked: Do you think other states are making a mistake and rushing to vaccinate the general public or are they in a better place to be able to open eligibility for everyone?

“It’s a comparison of apples and oranges going from one state to another,” said Willems Van Dijk. “We have different paths for the supply of vaccines, we have had different phases, we have different populations”.

Officials say they will monitor a number of factors in the coming weeks to determine whether or not to advance the schedule, including supply status and concerns about the spread of the most contagious strains of the virus, especially among young adults.

“I think it is a big factor that we would take into account,” she said. “This presence of variants can be a motivating factor for people who may not have considered the vaccine beforehand, who would do it now.”

There are now 70 confirmed cases of variant strains of the virus in Wisconsin.

Remember that only about one percent of all samples collected are tested for the variant.

Locally and across the state, we are seeing a slight increase in the number of positive cases in general.

More than 27% of Wisconsin residents received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, but state health officials raised concerns on Thursday about a further increase in positive cases – including variants – leading to new travel care during spring break and discard other safeguards.

In the past seven days, the average number of new cases of COVID-19 in Wisconsin was 439 and the percentage of positive tests was 2.5%, up from 2% two weeks ago. There are now 69 cases of the most contagious variant B117 detected for the first time in England, compared with 55 last week.

Infection rates have recently increased in some states, including neighboring Michigan and Minnesota, and public health experts warn at every opportunity that relaxing social detachment and other measures can easily lead to another increase.

“In a way, we were taken to a sense of security here in Wisconsin because we had such a bad situation and just having it bad doesn’t seem very terrible to us,” said Julie Willems Van Dijk, deputy health secretary for the state, a conference call on Thursday.

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Although weekly cases reached 6,000 at the peak of the pandemic in mid-November, the current level of about 450 new positives per week is still very high, said Willems Van Dijk.

“We have never been at a low level of disease activity,” she said.

Willems Van Dijk warned against traveling or engaging in other risky behavior as the state continues to make progress with vaccinations. Next week, Wisconsin is scheduled to receive about 35,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson’s unique vaccine, she said, which will help boost immunization efforts.

“We don’t want to take five steps back just when we are on the verge of things getting much better,” she said.

More than 2 million people with certain underlying conditions, including being overweight or hypertensive, became eligible for the vaccine this week. The general public is scheduled to become eligible on May 1. About half of the other states plan to open eligibility for everyone before that.

Wisconsin will need to have more vaccine coming in than it is currently receiving, before that date can be moved to earlier, said Willems Van Dijk.

“We will continue to evaluate this and see where we are,” she said. “As soon as we feel confident in the supply of the vaccine we are receiving and at the rate of the vaccine, we will make the decision and announce it.”

On Thursday, more than 27% of Wisconsin residents aged 16 and over received at least one dose and nearly 16% were fully vaccinated, according to the state health department. Almost 74% of people over 65 received at least one dose.

The fourth Wisconsin-based community-based coronavirus vaccination clinic will open on April 6 in Wausau, Governor Tony Evers announced on Thursday.

The clinic at Northcentral Technical College will join the community clinics previously opened in Janesville, La Crosse and Racine.

“These vaccination clinics continue to serve Wisconsin, giving people more options to be vaccinated,” said Evers in a statement. “And in doing so, bring us all one step closer to getting back to our Wisconsin way of life.”

The Wausau clinic will administer at least 400 doses of the vaccine per day, with the capacity to go up to 1,000 doses daily, Evers’ administration said. The first appointments will go to those on the Marathon County Health Department waiting list for priority patients.

On Saturday, the Janesville clinic administered 5,703 doses of vaccine, and the clinic in La Crosse administered 2,021 doses, the governor’s office said. The Racine clinic opened on Tuesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.