Wisconsin DHS Media Briefing for 1/21/2021

Who:

• Governor Tony Evers
• Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk, Wisconsin Department of Health Services 
• Dr. Ryan Westergaard, Chief Medical Officer, DHS Bureau of Communicable Diseases
• Ryan Nilsestuen, Chief Legal Counsel, Office of the Governor

When: Thursday, January 21, 2021 at 1:30 p.m.          

Today the governor emphasized the impending Phase 1b rollout of vaccine, and thanked Andrea Palm, the former Secretary-Designee for DHS.

The new recommendations for phase 1B populations have been released from the advisory committee to DHS, where they are considering how to handle these recommendations. This phase is very large, and the supply of vaccine will be the same for at least the next 3- 4 weeks, which will mean the rollout will be very slow with the current supplies. DHS is asking people to be patient and to persevere in the face of this challenge by continuing to stop the spread.

The state is currently working on a state-wide vaccine scheduling system that will be used when the state is ready to start doing large-scale public-facing clinics. 

The pharmacy program is about 95% through the skilled nursing facilities for the first dose and is just starting with the assisted-living facilities. There are over 4,000 assisted-living facilities on the list.