GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — The vaccination process continues in Northeast Wisconsin, and it hasn’t been perfect.
Bellin Health’s Dr. Michael Landrum said Wednesday that vaccination is quite the logistical challenge.
“Who do you ask to go to nursing homes and actually give the vaccine?” asked Landrum during a Wednesday press briefing. “The healthcare system is currently strapped taking care of COVID-19, so we don’t have a lot of spare resources.”
Every day, however, is getting better. Landrum says they’re perfecting the process every day, and expanding their capabilities weekly.
“Here at Bellin, we are adding additional sites for vaccine administration weekly now and looking at mass vaccination sites for the general public as we move forward,” Landrum said.
Such sites likely wouldn’t be seen until the summer. DHS Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said Tuesday that it’s not likely that we would see public vaccination until around June, if the vaccine process manages to speed up as hoped.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions, however, regarding who exactly will get the vaccine next, after healthcare workers. A state subcommittee has released a preliminary list of possible groups, including people over the age of 70, people in the state’s IRIS program, non-EMS first responders, and teachers.
“It is not a perfect process. There are going to be exclusions and exceptions that don’t seem to make sense,” Landrum said of the subcommittee’s efforts. “But that’s the process.”
The first phase, phase 1A, of the vaccine distribution in the state is expected to be mostly finished by the end of the month.
