UPDATE: Wisconsin DHS officials announced Wednesday evening that COVID vaccine providers will be ready to administer the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to anyone between the ages of 12-15 starting Thursday, May 13, 2021.
ORIGINAL POST:
WISCONSIN- Decreasing demand for the COVID-19 vaccine will likely turn around, at least temporarily, this week as vaccinators ready to add kids as young as twelve to the eligibility list.
An advisory panel recommended to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the Pfizer shot be made available to kids 12-15 years old today. Vaccinations in this age group could start in Wisconsin as early as tomorrow.
Deputy Health Secretary Julie Willem Van Dijk says the new age group will add about 300-thousand people to Wisconsin’s eligibility list.
“We do believe the new population will result in our vaccinators requesting our Pfizer vaccine, but we have plenty of the vaccine in our allocation to accommodate those requests,” Van Dijk said during a media briefing this afternoon.
As recently as last week the State Department of Health requested only 8% of the vaccine they were eligible for through the federal government’s program because of declining need.
“The urgency was largely related to people who were very concerned about contracting COVID and having serious outcomes from it,” Van Dijk said. “We heard from older adults who knew that 87% of our deaths had been in people age 65+ and they came very quickly and now we are facing a population that may just not feel quite as threatened by the disease.”
Van Dijk says that decrease in demand put the state in good shape to handle any sudden increase in the coming days, “between the vaccine we have in storage and the vaccine we have to order, we’ll have plenty of vaccine.”
According to the DHS, 44.6% of eligible Wisconsinites have gotten at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19. Pfizer is responsible for more than half of the 4.75 million shots administered.