Action Needed: COVID-19 Vaccine Bi-Weekly Allocation Survey
This email is being sent to COVID-19 Vaccine Program enrolled site's coordinators, back-up coordinators, and other contacts at your facility. Please make sure that only one individual completes this survey on behalf of your location and please do not share this email with others outside of your organization.
This is the allocation survey for the weeks beginning April 12 and April 19.
Even with steady increases in vaccine from the Federal government, current demand for COVID-19 vaccines continues to exceed supply. Organizations should anticipate not receiving the entire amount of vaccine requested. Furthermore, due to the high demand, it may not be possible to provide vaccine to every vaccination site.
Groups currently eligible for COVID-19 vaccine include:
- Frontline health care personnel
- Residents and staff in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities
- Police and fire personnel, correctional staff
- Adults age 65 and older
- Educators and child care staff
- Individuals enrolled in Medicaid long-term care programs
- Some public-facing essential workers
- Non-frontline essential health care personnel
- Staff and residents in congregate living facilities
- Individuals age 16 and older with certain medical conditions associated with an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19. For a complete list of conditions visit the COVID-19 eligibility page.
- You should continue to focus on vaccinating previously eligible groups before moving on to the most recently eligible group.
- This includes proactive outreach to populations eligible March 1 or earlier, such as education and child care staff, individuals enrolled in Medicaid long-term care programs, some public facing employee groups like 911 operators, public transit, and food supply chain workers, non-frontline essential health care personnel, and congregate living facility staff and residents.
- While DHS recommends that vaccinators employ a method of verification for those seeking to receive vaccine, it is imperative to do so in a manner that is sensitive to all populations. Vaccinators may ask for ID verification, but may not require it be a state or government ID. In the event a vaccine recipient does not have eligibility documentation, vaccinators are encouraged to ask them to complete a letter of attestation and proceed with vaccination.
- You should ensure that your website and registration systems properly reflect the group of individuals who are eligible.
- There will not be enough vaccine to vaccinate all eligible individuals at once. We ask for everyone’s patience and ask our partners to communicate this via your networks.
- The last bi-weekly allocation survey was sent March 15 and asked vaccinators how many doses were needed for the weeks of March 29 and April 5.
- The current survey asks vaccinators how many doses they could use the weeks of April 12 and April 19, separately identifying how much is needed for each individual week.
- Deliveries will continue weekly.
- Your allocations will be based upon forecasts provided by the CDC. The state is not able to order the vaccine until the Thursday before it is delivered. Actual allocated quantities may vary depending on the availability of vaccine. Any changes will be communicated to vaccinators before the vaccine is delivered.
In the current allocation survey, you will indicate your location’s vaccine allocation request separately for the week beginning April 12 and the week beginning April 19. Your requests must be for the initial/first doses only. Allocation requests for second doses will be calculated and shipped to you automatically.
Readiness includes having the ability to receive the vaccine at a pre-determined time, store the vaccine per the requirements of the manufacturer, ensure the security of the vaccine, and administer the vaccine to eligible populations per DHS recommendations within the week the doses were requested for (i.e., the week beginning on April 12 or April 19).
If you cannot use vaccine in either of those two weeks (i.e., the week beginning on April 12 or April 19), or do not serve those eligible for vaccination during those weeks, do not fill out this survey.
The provider drop-down is listed in order of Pandemic PIN number, so please have your Pandemic PIN ready.
The bi-weekly allocation survey includes questions to help us plan ahead for requests for mobile vaccination teams (MVT). These questions are only for Local and Tribal Health Departments (LTHDs). If you are not a LTHD and would like to pursue mobile vaccination support, please coordinate with your LTHD.
LTHDs will be provided an opportunity on the survey to indicate whether they intend to request a MVT during the 2-week period covered during the allocation survey. LTHDs that indicate yes will be contacted by the Wisconsin COVID-19 Vaccine Program Team to coordinate and formalize the request for support.
This survey is not the LTHD’s only opportunity to request MVT support for the bi-weekly period. If LTHDs are unable to project their MVT requirements on this bi-weekly allocation survey, they may submit requests at any time through the WebEOC process. Please be aware that we will prioritize MVT support, if requests exceed support capacity, to requests initiated through the bi-weekly allocation survey.
These clinics are a collaboration between employers and vaccinators to target that specific employer’s staff. The vaccinator will request vaccine for these employer-based clinics through a survey link provided below. A guidance document will be released shortly to help employers understand their vaccination options, identify an option that suits their organization, and communicate effectively with their employees to encourage vaccination.
The Wisconsin COVID-19 Vaccine Program Team will review employer-based clinics’ allocation requests under the following considerations:
- A request for vaccine to support an employer-based clinic will be reviewed separately from your other vaccine requests, and will be accepted or not accepted as an independent request.
- Accepting or denying an employer-based clinic’s vaccine request will have no impact on your other allocation requests.
- If approved, this allocation will be provided in addition to any allocation requested and received through the bi-weekly survey.
- Given the limited supply of vaccine, not all employer-based clinic allocation requests will be filled. If a vaccinator’s allocation request for an employer-based clinic is not filled, they are encouraged to re-submit their request in the next bi-weekly allocation survey.
- Any registered vaccinator can become the lead coordinating entity for employer-based clinics. Lead coordinating entities are expected to conduct all coordination with the employers to identify the quantity of doses required, as well as all other information needed to fulfill the allocation request.
- By self-identifying as a lead coordinating entity for eligible employer(s) in the survey, you agree to be contacted by representatives from the Wisconsin COVID-19 Vaccine Program for further coordination.
- Vaccinators should communicate with their LTHD to assist with local awareness and coordination, and to avoid potential duplication of efforts.
The bi-weekly allocation survey and the employer-based clinics survey are both due by noon on Wednesday, March 31, 2021. If you miss this deadline, we will not be able to allocate vaccine to your organization.
We encourage vaccinators to submit requests for employer-based clinics as soon as possible, if they are requesting vaccine for the week of April 12, so that we can begin to review those requests.
Step 1. For the week beginning April 12, you will receive an email no later than mid-morning on Wednesday, April 7, notifying you whether or not your organization will receive vaccine. For the week beginning April 19, you will receive an email no later than mid-morning on Wednesday, April 14, notifying you whether or not your organization will receive vaccine.
Please note, in the past, DHS notified vaccinators about allocations on Tuesday evenings. However, due to an increase in unpredictable vaccine allocation supply, going forward, DHS will be sending provider allocation notifications by mid-morning Wednesday, instead of Tuesday evening.
If you are allocated vaccine, the allocation email will explain which COVID-19 vaccine (i.e. Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson) your location is allocated and the number of first and second doses. If you receive both a bi-weekly and an employer-based clinic(s) allocation, these allocations will appear in the email as one combined total. This notification is based on the forecasted amount of vaccine to be received from the CDC. You will receive a follow-up e-mail if the actual amount changes before delivery.
A separate email will be sent to providers whose allocations were increased to support employer clinics. This separate email will outline how many doses are earmarked for particular employer-based clinics.
Step 2. You should fill out the survey again when the next survey is available. We anticipate this will be on Monday, April 12, for the weeks of April 26 and May 3. Your requests do not automatically carry over each survey.
If you have questions please send an e-mail to DHSCOVIDVaccinator@wi.gov.
All vaccine providers actively administering vaccine will be included on the DHS Vaccine Provider Map. All newly allocated providers will be indicated on the map as “open to eligible groups,” unless communicated otherwise. To communicate a change in your availability status (e.g., open to eligible groups or closed to the public) or other corrections in relation to your location(s), fill out the survey found on the Vaccine Provider Map webpage. The map correction survey can also be found here.
On March 30, 2021, at 9:00 a.m., DHS will host the weekly office hours for vaccine coordinators, managers, and clinicians. You can sign up for the webinar on the DHS website.
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