• The Winnebago County Health Department provides an up-to-date list of all vaccination locations in the area at www.wcvaccine.org. Please refer patients and community members to this page. Please notify the health department of any updates necessary to this page. 

• Winnebago County COVID-19 Recommendations: In response to the updated CDC guidance for vaccinated individuals, the Winnebago County Health Department issues the following recommendations to serve as guidelines to control the transmission of the virus throughout our communities.

• On May 12, Wisconsin expanded COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to include adolescents age 12-15. This means, anyone age 12 and older can get protection against COVID-19 through vaccination. At this time, the Pfizer vaccine is the only vaccine available for those ages 12-17. It requires two doses, separated by 21 days, for full protection. The Pfizer vaccine has gone through the same safety tests as all other vaccines authorized in the U.S. and is approved by Emergency Use Authorization.
• To learn more, visit:
• For Ages 12 and Older: What Parents and Guardians Should Know (Q&A)
• COVID-19 Resources for Parents and Guardians (DHS)
• COVID-19 Vaccines for Children and Teens page (CDC)
• Benefits of Getting a COVID-19 Vaccine
• We are working alongside our local healthcare partners to provide opportunities for this new age group to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Please be patient. If you know of families with a 12-17 year old seeking vaccination, please consider the following:
• Culver Family Welcome Center (625 Pearl Ave, Oshkosh) is offering Pfizer to those 12-17 years old. Visit uwosh.edu/titans-return for more info.
• Walk-In Hours:
• Monday: 9am – 2pm
• Tuesday: Noon - 5pm
• Fridays: 9am – 11am
• Many primary care offices will be reaching out to parents/guardians of their patients aged 12 and up. To avoid overwhelming office phone lines, we recommend visiting your provider's website for updated information about vaccination opportunities if you have not yet been contacted.
• A parent/guardian may need to be present at the time of the vaccination. When scheduling an appointment, we recommend asking what that location's policy is.
• Visit www.wcvaccine.org for a list of vaccine opportunities in the area. This site will be updated as more opportunities become available.
• Additional vaccination locations may be found at Vaccines.gov  

• On Thursday May 13, the CDC released updated guidance that fully vaccinated people can resume activities they did before the pandemic, including participating in indoor and outdoor activities – large or small – without wearing a mask or physically distancing. Fully vaccinated people can also refrain from testing following a known exposure unless they are residents or employees of a correctional or detention facility or a homeless shelter. A person is considered fully vaccinated against COVID-19 if it has been two or more weeks since they got the second dose in a two-dose series (such as Pfizer or Moderna), or one dose of a single-dose vaccine (such as Johnson & Johnson).
• Important Exceptions to Updated Mask Guidance:
• Health care settings
• K-12 Schools
• Places where masks are required by local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including: local businesses and workplaces
• Residents and employees of correctional and detention facilities and homeless shelters
• Travelers on all planes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation traveling into, within, or out of the United States and in U.S. transportation hubs such as airports and stations
• Full CDC recommendation: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html

• Winnebago County Health Department will be offering free walk-in COVID-19 vaccination clinics at Sunnyview Expo Center (500 E County Road Y, Oshkosh, WI). Appointments are NOT required.
• Every Wednesday in May from 1pm-6pm. Vaccination is open to all individuals aged 18 and older. The clinic will be administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is a 1-dose vaccination (subject to vaccine availability).

• Moderna EUA Update
• FDA has amended the emergency use authorization (EUA) for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine to reflect a maximum of 15 doses per vial. This is an increase from the current maximum of 11 doses per vial. Moderna began shipping the increased-dose vials under a new National Drug Code (NDC) on May 3.
• Likewise, McKesson has begun shipping expanded ancillary kits to support the administration of 140 doses of vaccine. These ancillary kits are optimized to extract 14 doses per vial. Please note that an unextracted 15th dose from the larger volume Moderna vial does not result in reportable waste.

• Some members of the public are vaccine hesitant due to factors such as confusion about how vaccines work, vaccine benefits, and vaccine safety. State and national resources are available to address vaccine hesitancy.
• DHS Resources
• COVID-19: Vaccine Safety and Efficacy
• COVID-19: Getting Your Vaccine
• COVID-19: Vaccine Partner Resources
• CDC Resources
• Communication Resources
• Frequently Asked Questions about COVID-19 Vaccination
• Rapid Community Assessment Guide

• On Thursday, April 22, DHS announced the official transition to Vaccines.gov (previously known as VaccineFinder). Vaccines.gov is available in English and Spanish and will help connect individuals with vaccinators near them.
• The Wisconsin Department of Health Services created a new Office of Health Equity to coordinate existing and new efforts on equity and inclusion. Structural racism contributes directly to unequal access to wealth, housing, food and health care. The COVID-19 pandemic has acted like an x-ray, revealing the tremendous disparities that exist in people’s ability to be healthy and get the care they need. The new office will conduct research and policy analysis to address the social determinants, or root causes, of health. This includes, but is not limited to, access to housing, stable income, and health care.
• DHS launched a new webpage dedicated to connecting parents and guardians with resources to support their family’s health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The webpage includes information from medical experts on risk factors for severe illness in children, possible long-term effects of COVID-19, and tips on how to protect children from the virus. There are also printable resources covering topics such as mental health, preventative care services, COVID-19 vaccine information for children, and other tools to help keep families safe and healthy.

• As demand for vaccine across the state continues to soften, vaccinators are becoming increasingly creative to find new opportunities to offer vaccine to individuals, including in smaller settings such as primary care visits. The CDC recommends:
• Providers follow clinical best practice for vaccination as well as best practices when managing inventory to maximize vaccination and minimize dose wastage.
• Providers should not miss any opportunities to vaccinate every eligible person who presents at a vaccination site, even if it means puncturing a multidose vial to administer vaccine without having enough people available to receive each dose.
• Consider establishing and promoting standing vaccination days or half-days to increase likelihood of larger numbers of people presenting for vaccination on the same day.
• Vaccinate family members or friends who accompany patients to medical visits even if they are not established patients at the vaccinating practice.
• Continue outreach to employers or other community partners that have a large membership or network to arrange vaccination events.
• Once punctured, multidose vials must be used within:
• 12 hours (Moderna)
• 6 hours (Pfizer)
• 2 hours (Johnson & Johnson/Janssen)
• CDC is inviting people who received COVID-19 vaccination in the periconception period (within 30 days before last menstrual period) or during pregnancy to participate in the v-safe COVID-19 Vaccine Pregnancy Registry. Pregnant people who would like to participate must be enrolled in v-safe. If people enrolled in v-safe report that they were pregnant at the time of vaccination or after vaccination, the CDC registry staff might contact them to learn more. More information can be found here.
• Studies on the effects of wearing masks have shown there is no change in oxygen or carbon dioxide levels when people wear cloth and surgical masks while resting and exercising. The studies included healthy hospital workers, older adults, and adults with COPD. Although sometimes uncomfortable, masks were found to be safe even when exercising. 
• Product Information Guide: CDC updated this guidance to include specifications for the new presentation of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine (13-15 dose vials) and its ancillary supply kit.
• Choosing Safer Activities
• Clinical Considerations for COVID-19 Vaccines
• Domestic Travel during COVID-19
• Essential Workers COVID-19 Vaccine Toolkit

• MMWR:
• Anxiety-Related Adverse Event Clusters After Janssen COVID-19 Vaccination — Five U.S. Mass Vaccination Sites, April 2021
• Effectiveness of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Vaccines Against COVID-19 Among Hospitalized Adults Aged ≥65 Years — United States, January–March 2021
• Modeling of Future COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations, and Deaths, by Vaccination Rates and Nonpharmaceutical Intervention Scenarios — United States, April–September 2021
• Safety Monitoring of the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 Vaccine — United States, March–April 2021
• Updated Recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for Use of the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 Vaccine After Reports of Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Among Vaccine Recipients — United States, April 2021

• Johnson & Johnson is hosting webinars multiple days in May with information for health care providers administering vaccine. The webinars are held at different times each day. The complete schedule is available here. 

• Thursdays, 12:00 PM- 1 PM- DHS Vaccine Equity
• Statewide network of vaccinators working to distribute the vaccine safely, efficiently, and equitably across Wisconsin. Each session will feature local vaccinators and their partners sharing their experiences, practices, and lessons learned.
• Learn more about each session in this flyer.
• Please register in advance here.

• Thursdays, 10:30 AM-12 PM - DHS Long-Term Care Webinar
• Join Zoom Meeting (click this link to go straight to the room without needing to enter the meeting ID and password)
• Meeting ID: 948 1795 1711 / Password: covid19
• Phone: (312) 626-6799 / Enter # if asked for participant ID
• The webinar will be recorded and posted to the here under Resources.

• Fridays, 10 AM - COVID-19 Vaccination stakeholder webinar
• Once you register for this weekly webinar, you can use the same link to join each Friday at 10 AM
• View the recordings of past webinars here