Vaccinations for people 65 and older to begin next week

Ozaukee County residents age 65 or older can get vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus beginning Monday, with school staff next in line, the county’s top health official said Tuesday.

Washington Ozaukee Public Health Director Kirsten Johnson said the 65-and-older group — about 11,000 people countywide — should contact their primary health provider to set up a vaccination, while school staff vaccinations are being arranged through school districts.

Those without a primary care provider should contact her department, which will be offering vaccinations by appointment. 

The location to receive shots is unknown at this point but Johnson said it might be at the Ozaukee County Fairgrounds in Cedarburg.

Both groups are part of a second wave, dubbed 1B, of vaccinations that also will include an “essential” workers group that Johnson said she expects to be clarified by the end of the week. 

Jail inmates also may be included in that group, she said.

Jail staff, as well as others in law enforcement and first responders, were part of the 1A group that also included frontline health care workers.

The 1A group also includes school paraprofessionals because they provide some medical care to students.

In the Port Washington-Saukville School District, that included 45 paraprofessionals.

By the end of this week, everyone in the 1A group will have received the first of the two shots required to complete the vaccination process, Johnson said. They should receive  their second shot by the end of February.

The prospect of having school staff — about 5,000 countywide, Johnson said — vaccinated is welcome news to school officials.

The news comes as the Port-Saukville School District prepares to return students to classrooms full time next week for the start of the second semester on Monday. 

Having district staff members vaccinated will be a relief for districts given the fact some have had to shut down at times because teachers were out sick or in quarantine.

“It’s going to make all our staff and students feel a lot safer,” Port-Saukville Schools Director of Special Services Duane Woelfel said. “We believe we can stay open as long as we keep teachers in the classrooms.”

Those whose jobs were deemed essential near the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak can get their names on a vaccination waiting list on the health department website.

It’s possible, however, they could be bumped from the list, depending on whether the state changes the definition of what is an essential worker, Johnson said.

The pace of vaccinations is limited by the number of doses the county, local hospitals and pharmacies receive, Johnson said.

“We have enough doses to finish off 1A,” she said, but the county makes a request for doses each week without knowing how many doses they will receive the next.

“Last week we asked for 800 and we received 700. We’ve asked for 1,300 next week and we expect to get 1,200, but we don’t know,” she said. “We have plans in place. What we can provide depends on how many doses we receive.”

  While the state and federal governments have been criticized for a too-slow release of the vaccine, Johnson said the county is in a good position.

“We’re a week or two ahead of where we thought we’d be,” she said.

Some private dispensers of the vaccine, such as pharmacies, have had excess doses to share.

“We’ve directed them to reach out to non-profits and schools,” Johnson said. “That’s really helped us speed up the process. We’ve been serving as a clearinghouse, trying to connect people to available doses wherever they may be found.”

For more information, contact the Washington Ozaukee Health Department at 284-8170 or visit www.washozwi.gov.