COVID-19 vaccines are available now at pharmacy locations around the Northwoods.
Wisconsin is currently in a surge of infections.
COVID-19 infections have been on the rise, but updated vaccines are now available in pharmacies.
In Merrill, for example, data from the city’s wastewater shows that infection levels are high.
Vaccines are recommended two months after your last COVID vaccination.
If you recently had COVID, the CDC recommends to wait 3 months before your next vaccination.
They help prevent serious cases of the illness.
The rate of uptake of the 2023-24 COVID vaccine was around 19%.
Dr. Stephanie Schauer, Wisconsin Immunization Program Manager, says we have a long way to go in making sure we are a well protected community.
“You can't predict who will have a milder and who will have a more severe case of these diseases. And want to just making sure that people remember that these are important diseases to make a plan for protecting themselves, their family and their community,” said Dr. Schauer.
“I think it's important that folks recognize and continue to remember that COVID-19 and influenza are serious diseases while you know, they can range in how much they hit someone, whether it's a couple of really crummy days or it ends up being with very severe complications or hospitalization or possibly death,” she said.
The Oneida County Public Health Department offers the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for everyone five years of age and older.
Melissa Bryner, a public health nurse with Oneida County, talked about the vaccines.
"“This is actually a new strain, so for the 24/25 season, it targets the variants that are actually going around right now,” said Bryner.
She said COVID-19 positive infections are up right now.
“We have been seeing an increase in cases for some time now. The prediction is we will not see a drop anytime soon, and these cases will kind of tend to go up for a while, but it ebbs and flows. So it's not like flu season, where there's an exact season, the variants are continually changing, and we get that spike and that drop,” said Bryner.
She reminds folks to stay home when they’re not feeling well, test for COVID, eat a well-balanced diet and stay up to date on your vaccinations.
As a reminder, vaccines decrease the chance of serious illness or death from COVID-19 and masks and distance can help prevent infection in the first place.
If you don’t have insurance, it’s going to be harder to find free vaccines now that the Bridge Federal Access Program has run out of funding.
However, you may still be able to get your shot through Wisconsin’s Vaccines for Adults program, which provides free or low-cost shots at 120 providers.
