4 New Pharmacies Will Offer Vaccines

Four new pharmacies in Wisconsin will be receiving COVID-19 vaccine doses as a part of the federal pharmacy retail program this week, according to a press release from the state Department of Health Services.

Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network, which includes some Hometown Pharmacies, Managed Health Care Associates, Meijer and Walmart, will join Walgreens and Kroger as program participants in Wisconsin.

For the first week, the federal government will ship 2,340 Pfizer doses to Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network, 500 Johnson & Johnson doses to Managed Health Care Associates, 3,510 Pfizer doses to Meijer and 1,500 Johnson & Johnson doses to Walmart. These doses come directly from the federal government and are in addition to Wisconsin’s weekly state allocation, according to the release.

Phase 1c of vaccine distribution is scheduled to begin on Monday in Wisconsin, which will open eligibility to more than 2 million people, according to DHS.

Meanwhile, new reports of COVID-19 cases are holding steady in Wisconsin, based on the latest data published by DHS.

DHS reported 390 new cases of the disease Friday, bringing the average for the past seven days to 386 daily cases. One week ago, the average was 392 daily cases.

There were 1,898 negative tests reported Friday.

As COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin remain significantly lower than they were at the start of the year, more of the state’s residents are being vaccinated against the disease.

A total of 2,219,237 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered in Wisconsin as of Friday, with 46.2 percent of Wisconsinites age 65 and up fully vaccinated.

As of Friday, 811,217 people in Wisconsin, or 13.9 percent of the population, have been fully vaccinated.

Increasing rates of vaccination have provided a sense of hope after a yearlong pandemic that has claimed the lives of 6,562 people in Wisconsin. There were six new deaths from COVID-19 reported Friday.

Other DHS data from Friday include:

• 571,610 total cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
• 3,251,399 total tests administered, 2,679,789 of which have been negative since the pandemic began.
• 27,024 people have been hospitalized because of the disease, or 4.7 percent, of all positive cases, since the pandemic began.
• Daily testing capacity remains at 59,273, though only 2,288 new test results were reported Friday.

Coronavirus rates vary from county to county. In order to track COVID-19 activity levels, DHS looks at the number of new cases per a county’s population over a 14-day period — and whether there’s an upward or downward trend in new cases. Activity levels range from “critically high,” “very high,” “high,” “medium,” to “low.”

As of Wednesday, DHS data showed the state had no counties with “critically high” or “very high” levels of COVID-19 activity. The majority of Wisconsin counties have “high” levels of activity. There were growing case trajectories in Calumet, Dunn, Fond du Lac, La Crosse, Pierce and Taylor counties. Wisconsin’s overall COVID-19 activity level is “high.”

4 New Pharmacies Added To Federal Vaccine Distribution Program In Wisconsin was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.