APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Fox Valley leaders have announced their plans for a COVID-19 vaccination facility at the Fox Cities Exhibition Center.
“It’s turning the page for our residents to know that there is a positive spin in 2021. We’re going to have an opportunity to knock this virus down through vaccinations,” said Appleton Health Officer Kurt Eggebrecht. “Next week our target is to vaccinate 1,000 people, and I’m confident we’ll do that. But we feel that’s just the beginning. We really see this as an ability to gear up as more vaccine becomes available.”
That 1,000 doses is actually their entire allocation of vaccine doses, so the facility won’t be able to exceed that amount.
“Inherently, there’s going to be frustration next week and moving forward in the next coming week. We want to set realistic expectations. Vaccine is in short demand across the country and will be for some time,” Eggebrecht said. “We recognize we’ll have more people that want doses than we have…I ask the people to please be patient. We will certainly add additional clinic dates and opportunities as vaccine becomes available.”
The current plan is targeting only the 65 years and older demographic, and that’s a purposeful decision. Eggebrecht says they know they won’t have enough vaccine to meet demand, but still want to reach the most vulnerable groups in the community.
As for how long the process takes, Eggebrecht says to block out at least 30 minutes of your day.
“There’ll be an assessment and education that takes place, and then they’ll be a vaccination, and then really an observation time of 15 minutes,” Eggebrecht said. “We’re limiting it to Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 9-11:30am and again from 1-3pm…As we scale up, we have the ability to add more days, we have the ability to add more hours. That’ll be determined primarily due to the process of the state and the vaccine availability. We have to plan that on a weekly basis…We’re working on the assumption will go forward every week until we don’t have vaccine to do so. We want the vaccine to be the limiting factor.”
While the clinic will target people who live in the vicinity, places like Outagamie, Winnebago, and Calumet counties – Eggebrecht says they can’t necessarily turn people away that are from outside of the area because the vaccine is a federal resource.
Appointments are required and can be scheduled online beginning Friday. Ascension Wisconsin says it will contact eligible patients in the coming weeks, while ThedaCare encourages appointments to be made through MyThedaCare/My Chart.
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