The tool helps connect people to vaccinations more easily, Department of Health Services says.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) is now urging people who have yet to start a COVID-19 vaccine series to use VaccineFinder.org to find available doses.
The tool, developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Boston Children’s Hospital, allows people to search for in-stocks vaccines in a 50-mile radius of their zip code. Users can also filter their search by vaccine brand—a feature that can help 16 and 17-year-olds get more easily vaccinated, because they are currently only eligible for a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
DHS will officially replace its own vaccine provider map with VaccineFinder next month, the department said in a Thursday press release.
“DHS is constantly evaluating different tools to make it easier to find available vaccine,” DHS Secretary-designee Karen Timberlake said in a statement. “It is critical that we streamline this process so anyone wanting a vaccination can quickly locate available vaccine in their community and get vaccinated.”
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Wisconsin’s vaccination progress is still moving along swiftly. As of Thursday, 41.1%, or 2.4 million state residents—41.1% of the state’s population—had received at least one dose and 1.7 million—29.7% of the population—were fully vaccinated, according to DHS data.
The state is still on track to have herd immunity—about 75%-80% of the population fully vaccinated—by the end of June, Deputy DHS Secretary-designee Julie Willems Van Dijk said in a Thursday afternoon press briefing.
“That’s very doable from a perspective of vaccine supply and vaccine access,” Willems Van Dijk said. “We just need people to keep saying yes [to the vaccine].”
