GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Prevea Health and UW-Green Bay are teaming up to provide a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Kress Events Center.
“Part of our focus is not only to do this at scale, but living to the promises of our oath and doing it right,” said Prevea Health President and CEO, Dr. Ashok Rai.
“Today we are making a difference for Wisconsin and this area,” said UW System Interim President Tommy Thompson. “Hopeful with the help of the state of Wisconsin Department of Health and Human Services, we can be their good partners in making sure that all vaccines sites can be set up on all of our campuses so we can serve the people of the state of Wisconsin faster and better.”
Once things get rolling, the new vaccination clinic is expected to be administering 10,560 weekly doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Rai says while it took just five days to set up the entire site, everything is created to maintain quality, safety, and HIPAA protections.
A row of vaccine distribution offices built at the Kress Events Center (PHOTO/WTAQ News)
“We’ll see 11 check-in stations, including our mobile interpreter service for those who do not speak English. 24 vaccination rooms equipped with computers and bar-code scanners. And 111 spaced out chairs for post-vaccine observation,” Rai said. “Our vaccination clinic at UW-Green Bay will continue to vaccinate Phase 1A, with the addition of law enforcement and fire personnel, until given the green light to move on to Phase 1B.”
The plan is also to scale up operations in the coming weeks at other locations in the communities that Prevea serves, with a goal of administering 20,000 vaccines per week to the public. That will include both first and second doses.
“We also have a commitment to serve and vaccinate all who want this vaccine when given the green light to expand and this includes immunizing those who live in rural communities and we have targeted plans for those in minority populations,” Rai said. “We continue to scale up in the coming weeks at other locations in the communities that we serve with the goal of administering 20,000 vaccines a week to the public.”
That includes expanded sites at the UW-Green Bay campuses in Sheboygan and Marinette. There will also be a large-scale site at a facility in Eau Claire, which isn’t associated with the university there.
“Just walking through what they built in less than five days, it’s absolutely incredible. And the idea that we could be doing 20,000 a week, I mean that’s what we need,” said 8th District Congressman Mike Gallagher. “And that’s the quickest way to get back to life as usual; As many people get vaccinated possible, particularly the vulnerable population [of people] 65 and over. So hopefully this continues to ramp up.”
Rai also expressed the interest of removing any barriers at the UW-Green Bay site and other sites across the state for people who want to be vaccinated. Anyone who isn’t quite sure how to utilize the Internet to sign up or has poor Internet connection can call 1-833-344-HERE to register and set up a time.
A waiting area inside the Kress Events Center for a COVID-19 vaccine clinic. (PHOTO/WTAQ News)
But again, not everyone can be vaccinated right away. Not even the entirety of Phase 1A could line up and get their shots at the same time. There simply isn’t enough supply of the vaccines in the state to actually pull that off.
For the first three weeks, the clinic will run at 50-65 percent capacity, and later ramp up to full steam.
“So you can’t run at 100-percent on day one, because in three weeks you’ll have to re-welcome that. You want to keep the pipeline going,” Rai explained. “Our goal is always aim small, miss small. So today we’re doing 100 inoculations. And we’re allowed to do law enforcement and fire, so we’ll start with them today and will continue to expand every day to get to that 50 percent to 60 percent capacity, and then get our [second shots] going.”
It’s quicker to get the second dose, Rai says, because there are fewer questions and less initial information that needs to be collected.
“I am looking forward to the day that we can say everybody’s vaccinated, and we’re gonna do our damndest to make that happen as quickly as we can,” said Governor Tony Evers. “There has to be some patience here…We talk about the fact that we want to vaccinate everybody 65 and over, and I’m in that category so I’m cool with that. But the bottom line is there are 900,000 of them in the state of Wisconsin…We cannot do 90,000 [vaccinations of] 65 and older people in one day. It takes time.”
A post-vaccine waiting area at the UW-Green Bay/Prevea Health COVID-19 vaccine clinic. (PHOTO/WTAQ News)
Initially, Prevea staff in partnership with HSHS hospital workers will be providing the vaccines. But they’re continually hiring up.
“We’ve been interviewing daily, and we’d love to have nursing students apply for that,” Rai said. “The jobs are out there. We had sixty applicants within a day of posting that. So there’s a lot of enthusiasm among retired nurses, retired physicians, those that want to work part time to get it to the finish line.”
“Going to be able to hire as many students as possible as soon as we get set up. As I indicated we’re going to open up in Eau Claire, Milwaukee, Parkside, Oshkosh hopefully all this week. Plus La Crosse at the end of the week, maybe next week,” Thompson added. “We have about five nursing schools. All of those individuals plus other students that are certified are going to be able to be hired by hospitals and nursing homes – as well as anybody who wants to help us out with vaccinations.”
Any UW System students who are brought in to help with the vaccination efforts will also receive a $500 credit on their tuition payment.
To learn more about the DHS vaccination prioritization guidelines and updates on phase rollouts, head to their website.
