Only 1 county health department using WI COVID-19 Vaccine Registry, but experts say it’s because others don’t need to yet – WKOW

MADISON (WKOW) -- Wisconsin's long-awaited COVID-19 Vaccine Registry launched this week, but so far only one county is using it.

State-run vaccination clinics in La Crosse and Rock counties are using the registry to set up appointments, but Green County is the only health department in the state to utilize it, too.

"We didn't plan on being the first," said Green County's Public Health Educator Bridget Craker. "We were really excited to get started."

Green County was one of the 10 organizations that got to pilot the site before it officially started rolling out March 1. Craker says the county is beginning to use it as a waitlist for county-run vaccination clinics.

"Everyone's put in a lot of hard work to create a really useful took that will be so beneficial for vaccine providers and for community members," she said.

But wasn't it supposed to be the waitlist for all of us? The form anyone in the state can fill out once -- and then are signed up everywhere?

That's how DHS pitched it last month, but so far, that's not how it works.

"I think I'd be a little more concerned about the registry sort of being a little slow if we weren't doing a good job vaccinating," said UW Professor Ajay Sethi.

Sethi says even without the registry up everywhere, Wisconsin is doing well.

"I think the best metric that indicates that is the percent of doses received that end up in the arms of people," he said.

That's about 85 percent in Wisconsin -- third best in the nation.

So far, Wisconsin is efficient at using vaccines once we get them -- constrained, now, by vaccine supply.

Sethi says once supply is no longer a constraint, a statewide registry will be crucial to make sure vaccines find arms.

"When the vaccinators get more supply than demand, they're going to want to be a part of that registry," he said.

For now, Sethi says healthcare providers and pharmacies are doing a good job rolling out vaccines with their current systems. He says the new statewide hotline fills the needs of people with questions.

In Sethi's eyes, the registry is a "bonus" where it's currently available.

Green County is right now one of two counties in the state with "very high" case activity.

"I think this is coming at a really great time," Craker said. "We'll have the vaccine availability to be able to utilize this really great tool to coordinate things efficiently and get people vaccinated."

DHS has said they expect the vaccine registry will be available to all interested vaccinators in the state -- including those outside of local health departments -- by April 1. Until all vaccinators opt in, people will have to use sign up processes directly through vaccinators to get on their specific waitlists.

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Only 1 county health department using WI COVID-19 Vaccine Registry, but experts say it's because others don't need to yet - WKOW

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