COVID-19 vaccination efforts ramping up in Waukesha County

WAUKESHA, Wis. - COVID-19 vaccination efforts are being ramped up in Waukesha County.

Health officials are now administering every dose they have as quickly as they can -- even as the county has identified the variant strain of the virus. The more contagious UK variant was also detected last month in Eau Claire, but experts say vaccines are still effective against it. 

Meanwhile, the clinic at the Waukesha County Expo Center was open on Monday, Feb. 8 in a partnership with DHS' mobile vaccination unit. The clinic administered 328 doses.

Wednesday was the first day Waukesha County was independently operating the clinic. They planned to administer 1,000 doses -- the county's supply for the entire week -- in just one day.

Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow said the clinic could open seven days a week, offering 1,000 doses a day by appointment each day. He said the state is only allocating a small fraction of the doses the county requested.

The clinic is focused now on Phase 1a recipients, but will soon shift to vaccinating those 65 and older.

"Our goal at the county is to ramp this facility up by March 1st we should have the capacity for 1,500 doses a day.  As we move into the warmer days, April or May, we should be able to ramp it up to 2,000 a day," Farrow said.

"We know people want this vaccine.  Our message is, people will be able to get this vaccine.  We will have a system in place when we have the supply – we will get this out," said Benjamen Jones, Waukesha County Public Health Manager.

Meanwhile, testing has decreased in Waukesha County, resulting in 13% of positive tests throughout the last week. The number of people tested daily has only topped 600 once in the last two weeks.

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If you are a Waukesha County resident looking to get the vaccine, health officials say your best bet right now is signing up for their newsletter. There is also more coronavirus information from the county. 

Waukesha County has administered more vaccines than the total number of people infected by the virus since the start of the pandemic. Farrow said they are up to about 58,000 doses so far.