FEMA Will Run Wisconsin Center Vaccinations

The Wisconsin Center vaccination site will become a federally run COVID-19 vaccination clinic as of next week.

Governor Tony Evers announced Wednesday that the site was chosen by President Joe Biden’s administration to be a federally run community vaccination site as part of a pilot program that will allow the site to administer 3,000 vaccinations per day.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will take complete control of the site and will begin shipping vaccine directly to it, as opposed to the site receiving its allotments from the state allocation. Once the transition is complete, the site will run seven days a week for eight weeks beginning Tuesday, April 6th.

Kevin M. Sligh, acting FEMA regional director for the area that includes Wisconsin and much of the Midwest, said bringing the site under the control of the federal government should increase access to the vaccine in the Milwaukee area.

Transitioning operations of the Wisconsin Center to FEMA will create additional vaccine capacity on top of what the state is already doing.

FEMA stepped in to support the Wisconsin Center operations in mid-March. Mayor Tom Barrett said then the support would allow the city “to redeploy local vaccinators to underserved and under-vaccinated areas of the city.”

“This additional federal support continues the great work our FEMA partners have already started here and will allow Wisconsin to free up state resources to focus on getting vaccine to other vulnerable populations in the state,” Evers said in a statement.

Milwaukee Health Commissioner Kirsten Johnson said transitioning the facility to federal control will give the city “more capacity to meet people where they are in the community and provide more vaccine at our central site here in the Wisconsin Center.”

The FEMA-run site will continue to receive support from the health department and Milwaukee County, along with support from the federal Department of Defense and the State of Wisconsin.

Eligible vaccination candidates can still sign up and make an appointment by visiting the county vaccination website or calling (414) 286-6800.

FEMA will be taking over the site at roughly the same time that the state widens the eligibility to the general population.

Evers announced Tuesday that beginning Monday, April 5th, every Wisconsin resident 16 years or older will be eligible for the vaccine. Already more than 30% of state residents have received at least one dose of vaccine and 17.9% have completed the vaccination process.