Kenosha County Vaccination Progress

Feb. 18, 2021 9:05p

From Kenosha County: 

As of Wednesday, 50 percent of Kenosha County’s 65-and-over population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine,

Health Officer Dr. Jen Freiheit announced. Kenosha County reached this milestone in just three weeks since the State of Wisconsin opened up vaccine eligibility to all residents 65 and above. 

The statewide rate of at least one dose of the vaccine for this population is presently about 42%. “While we still have a long way to go to reach our herd immunity goal of vaccinating 75% of our county’s entire population, we are proud to have already reached half of this most vulnerable population,” Freiheit said. “It’s our aim to get many more 65-plus residents in for vaccine in the coming weeks, before the state opens up vaccination to additional population groups in March.”

To that end, Kenosha County earlier this month opened a call center for vaccine-eligible individuals without internet access to schedule appointments. Operators are available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday, at 262-605-6799. Calls can be fielded in English or Spanish.

A list of local vaccine providers and links to their online registration systems also remains available on the Kenosha County COVID-19 Response Hub website at http://bit.ly/KCCOVIDHub, or by clicking the flashing red button at the top of the homepage at https://www.kenoshacounty.org/.

As of Wednesday, 12.6% percent of Kenosha County’s total population, or 21,538 residents, had received at least one dose of the vaccine. Those who have received both doses and are fully vaccinated comprise 3.8% of the population, or 6,521 residents.

The Kenosha County Public Health COVID Vaccination Clinics have vaccinated more than 8,500 people total to date. In the 65-plus age group, 12,390 Kenosha County residents have received the first dose and 1,844 have received both doses. The latter figure represents 7.5% of the county’s total 65+ population of 24,756.

To reach the 75% herd immunity goal, 127,500 residents will need to be fully vaccinated.

The groups currently eligible for vaccination in Wisconsin continue to be Tier 1a health care workers, law enforcement officers and emergency medical responders, and all those 65 and above. For a complete list of all those who are now eligible, see the hub website. “We know that the supply of the vaccine continues to fall short of the considerable demand, but we are hopeful the situation will continue to improve as more doses are made available, more groups become eligible and more providers come online,” Freiheit said. “This will be a long process, but Kenosha County and its health partners are working to move through it as quickly as possible.” 

-0-