It has been called to host part of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, as well as Milwaukee County’s 2020 Presidential election recount. Now, the Wisconsin Center will help the City of Milwaukee administer COVID-19 vaccines.
The city is renting out four ballrooms so they can be set up for this purpose. Mayor Tom Barrett says the Wisconsin Center’s current amenities, including having its own refrigeration unit, make selecting this location ideal.
“I think it is important for us to appreciate all the work that our health department employees have done,” says Barrett. “They have been remarkable. There is a tremendous amount of teamwork and coordination all being done in real-time.”
The process will be as follow:
- Individuals who enter will undergo a health screening and temperature check.
- They will then discuss any questions they have with medical professionals on site before consenting to the vaccine.
- The vaccine will be administered in one of several dozen vaccine rooms.
- Once they receive the vaccine, people will wait in a monitoring room where EMS providers from the Milwaukee Fire Department will watch for possible adverse reactions.
When the Center opens Tuesday, the focus will be on city employees. Currently, the focus is on Group 1A recipients, which include frontline healthcare workers and other emergency responders at high risk of getting COVID-19.
The next group to be receiving the vaccine will be firefighters and police officers, which the state Department of Health Services says will begin January 18.
“It is important to note that this is only our starting point for the largest mass-scale vaccine distribution in the history of this country,” said Nick Tomaro, Public Health Emergency Response Planning Coordinator for the Milwaukee Health Department. “There will be a multi-pronged approach for vaccine distribution. We will go mobile at a certain point. We’ve worked closely with the Milwaukee Fire Department and we’ve talked with them about having mobile vaccine strike teams that will be incredibly important as we head into later phases.”
The city hopes that the Wisconsin Center site will be one of several vaccination sites put in use as vaccines become more readily available later this year.
Wisconsin Center District CEO Marty Brooks joined Wisconsin’s Morning News with more. Listen to the full interview in the player above.
