First shots given to third of those 65 and up
State leads in average shots being given daily
Wisconsin now has vaccinated more than one-third of people 65 and older, a group that is especially vulnerable to COVID-19 and that makes up a disproportionate number of deaths linked to the disease.
Data posted by the state shows that as of Monday, 33.7% of people 65 and older have received at least one vaccine shot, up from about 24.4% on Feb. 3.
The progress comes as new data indicates that Wisconsin now is leading the nation in the average number of vaccine shots being administered daily.
Among the recently vaccinated seniors is Robert Toporsh, 85, who got his first shot last week at the City of Milwaukee’s vaccine clinic at the Wisconsin Center.
Toporsh’s daughter, Theresa, said she had been unsuccessful finding a vaccination site for her dad, who has pulmonary health issues, when she learned that the city was providing vaccinations at the Wisconsin Center.
“I clicked on the link in the morning and there were openings in the afternoon,” said Theresa, who lives with her father in a duplex in the Bay View area. “It was heaven-sent.”
While people 65 and older represent 16% of the population nationally, they make up 80% of COVID deaths, according to a July report by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
On Monday, the foundation released a new report showing that as of Feb. 1, 29 states and the District of Columbia had expanded vaccinations to those 65 and older, but most people in that group still had not been vaccinated.
“We are having to make difficult decisions between the groups who are most at risk,” said Meredith Freed, a policy analyst with the foundation and co-author of both reports.
“That group (65+) has been dying at disproportionate rates.”
On Monday, three health experts argued in a Washington Post opinion piece that “the most ethically justified path forward is to focus on individuals 65 and older.
“Prioritizing people 65 and older is the most efficient route to reduce the dying.”
Because of differences in the release of data, it is difficult to say how well Wisconsin is doing compared with other Midwest states in vaccinating older people.
For instance, Minnesota has vaccinated at least 28% of its 65 and older population and Michigan was at 24%, but their data was posted two to four days before the Wisconsin data that came out today.
Wisconsin’s vaccine rollout has improved among national rankings significantly in recent days, now 10th in administering a first dose to residents, and 16th in the total number of doses administered — up from nearly last just two weeks ago
Interim Health Secretary Karen Timberlake called Wisconsin’s ability to get more shots into arms “a success story.”
“We’re really pleased with our ability to distribute vaccine across the state. It’s really important to note that today we’re at more than one in three adults over 65 have received their first dose, which is just fantastic and really amazing progress,” Timberlake said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“We know that it has taken us some time to build that network of vaccinator partners all across our state.”
She said state officials have been working with local communities and vaccinators, including hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and federal qualified health centers.
Timberlake said state officials have been making weekly adjustments to how vaccine is distributed in an effort to get shots into arms faster.
State officials are also working to reach people in communities “that may be disconnected from health care, or may not have a large hospital system or a large clinic right in their backyard,” Timberlake said.
“We need to be making the best use that we can of the very limited maximum supply that we have,” Timberlake said.
In the meantime, Robert Toporsh is scheduled to go back for his second shot in about three weeks.
His daughter said she and her dad have stayed home a lot for fear of getting infected. Once he is fully vaccinated, she hopes his life will change a little for the better.
“We’ll still be cautious and we’ll still wear our masks,” she said.
“We are hoping we can get him out more, that it will bring us some freedom.”
State to measure rate differently
On Monday, the state Department of Health Services said it would shift to another method to measure test positivity rates.
The state had been measuring positivity rate as people who had tested positive or negative for the first time.
It excluded repeated positive or negative tests, such as from workers who are tested on a regular basis.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported this metric since the start of the pandemic.
The state also measures the positivity rate of all tests, even those that are repeats.
This method results in a lower positivity rate, since many people test negative repeatedly.
On Monday, DHS announced it removed the first-time test positivity metric from its online COVID-19 dashboard because it has become a "less useful metric" as the pandemic continues. DHS will show only the positivity rate as a share of all tests.
Now with more than 3 million people tested in the state, the first-time tests metric was inflating the positivity rate, DHS argues.
On Monday, 543 new positive tests were reported as well as 3,175 new negative tests.
But in all, the state reported 10,475 negative tests.
Including all tests given, the average positivity rate over the last seven days was 4.2%.
At its most recent peak in early January, it was 11.1%. At its highest peak of the pandemic in mid-November, it was 17.8%.
New cases reported: 543
New deaths reported: 1
Number hospitalized: 572 (intensive care: 134); down 482 patients from one month ago
Seven-day average of daily cases: 1,029 (down 1,686 cases from one month ago)
Seven-day average of daily deaths: 23 (down 13 from one month ago)
Total cases since the start of pandemic: 550,369 (13,939 active cases) Total deaths: 6,055
Total doses allocated: 986,275 Total doses administered: 767,020 Doses administered Saturday and Sunday: 17,245
People with both doses: 165,370