CITY OF MILWAUKEE — The City of Milwaukee has launched a new website allowing residents to sign up for an eventual COVID-19 vaccine.
Mayor Tom Barrett explained during an evening press briefing Tuesday that city residents 65 years or older will be eligible for the vaccine starting Jan. 25, 2021. But the city first needs your information to connect you with a vaccinator.
The new website, healthymke.com, allows residents 65 years or older to submit their contact information. Barrett said that you will then receive an alert via email or text message telling you they have connected you with a vaccinator. That does not mean, at least initially, that you will get the vaccine right away.
But when the vaccinator has enough doses to vaccinate you, they will be able to quickly contact you.
The mayor emphasized that vaccine doses remain in short supply. It is not clear when there will be enough doses to meet demand any time soon.
"To me, this is like a wartime effort," Barrett said during the press conference, only hours after Gov. Tony Evers announced that people 65 years or older will be eligiblefor the vaccines next Monday.
City residents will not be able to sign up for vaccines over the phone quite yet. Barrett said the hotline is still being set up.
Vaccinate rollout in Wisconsin
Anyone over age 65 in Wisconsin will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine starting next Monday, Gov. Evers and the DHS announced Tuesday morning.
The latest group of those eligible for the vaccine consists of 700,000 people, the DHS says.
The department said that the speed of vaccinations depends on the number of vaccines shipped by the federal government.
Right now, Wisconsin receives about 70,000 doses of first-dose vaccine each week, according to the DHS.
There are more than 1,200 vaccinators registered to deliver the vaccine in Wisconsin.
Also eligible for vaccinations are front-line health care workers, those in long-term care facilities, police and fire personnel. People over 65 may get vaccinated sooner if their provider has already inoculated those in the previously eligible population, according to the DHS.