OSHKOSH, Wis. (NBC 26) — The Winnebago County Health Department is one of the first in Northeast Wisconsin to offer the coronavirus vaccine at a walk-in availability. Today they offered the Moderna vaccine to anyone of age that walked in between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Public health officials say that they're doing this as part of their effort to making the Sunnyview Expo Center vaccination site as inclusive as possible. This idea was cemented on Wednesday, when they realized that they had significantly more doses than appointments in addition to a four-hour window mid-day with few appointments.
"Nobody else in our area that we know of has been doing a routine walk-in clinic, so we kind of had to lean on some of the other things we've done, past flu clinics that sort of thing, just to make sure we had the staff all ready to go," Kim Goffard, Communicable Disease Supervisor for Winnebago County Health Department said. "And our goal was really just to get more people in the door for vaccines."
On their first day of walk-in availability, 154 of Thursday's 581 vaccines given at the Sunnyview Expo Center were on a walk-in basis – just over 26 percent.
In an effort to try to reach more immigrants, officials are intentionally not asking for forms of ID or insurance upon checking in at the Sunnyview Expo Center.
"We just wanted to make sure that there was a place where people felt comfortable, that they could get vaccinated and not need to worry about any of those things," Goffard said.
"We only ask their name and their birthdate to verify that they're the right age to get the vaccine that we're giving that day," Shelley Brown-Giebel, Emergency Preparedness Specialist for Winnebago County Health Department said. "So once that's done, we give them a sticker that says they're checked in and they proceed to the next point."
After checking in, patients are guided through a maze of socially-distanced seating and checkpoints that are lined with volunteers are Wisconsin National Guards. The site has 10 different vaccination booth with some expandable to fit entire families in at once if that accomodation is needed.
There are also signs posted in Spanish and Hmong, and translators available some days of the week.
