About 2 million Wisconsin residents with medical conditions eligible for COVID-19 vaccine beginning March 29 - WTMJ-TV

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MADISON, Wis. — People ages 16 and older with certain medical conditions will be next in line to get the COVID-19 vaccine in Wisconsin.

The state’s Department of Health Services said 2 to 3 million Wisconsinites will be eligible for vaccinations at the end of March. That’s because state health officials have identified twenty medical conditions that increase the risk of severe illness from the virus.

The medical conditions for those eligible are as follows:

• Asthma (moderate-to-severe)

• Cancer
• Cerebrovascular disease (affects blood vessels and blood supply to the brain)
• Chronic kidney disease
• COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
• Cystic fibrosis
• Down syndrome
• Heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies
• Hypertension or high blood pressure
• Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant, blood or bone marrow transplant, immune deficiencies, HIV, use of corticosteroids, or use of other immune weakening medicines
• Liver disease
• Neurologic conditions, such as dementia
• Obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 30-39 kg/m2)
• Overweight (BMI of 25-29 kg/m2)
• Pregnancy
• Pulmonary fibrosis (having damaged or scarred lung tissues)
• Severe Obesity (BMI 40 kg/m2 or more)
• Sickle cell disease
• Type 1 or 2 diabetes mellitus
• Thalassemia (a type of blood disorder)

Gov. Tony Evers said Wisconsin is preparing to turn the corner on the pandemic by massively expanding who’s eligible to get vaccinated.

“We are ready to kick this pandemic to the curb and we are in a great position to do it,” Evers said.

The list of medical conditions included in phase 1C of the state’s distribution plan is exhaustive. Anyone 16 and older with asthma, cancer, down syndrome, heart and lung conditions and many more qualify.

“It means a little bit of freedom,” said Elodie Ontala of Milwaukee.

Ontala was ecstatic to learn people like her who live with Sickle cell disease will be able to get the shot soon.

“It’s a little bit less scary knowing that the vaccine will add a layer of protection for someone like me who spent the last year inside,” she said.

Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder that affects 100,000 African-Americans in the United States. Ontala said she struggles with pain every day due to her illness.

Michael Conroy/AP

In this Thursday, May 12, 2016 photo, the blood samples collected from a newborn at Community Hospital North are shown in the nursery at Community Hospital North in Indianapolis, Thursday, May 12, 2016. Some 4 million newborns in the United States will have blood drawn this year to screen them for serious inherited diseases such as sickle cell anemia, which can cause organ damage, and the metabolic disease phenylketonuria, or PKU, which can lead to mental disabilities. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

“Because I already don’t have the oxygen in my body, I don’t have the strength in my body to fight something like the coronavirus,” she said.

Women who are pregnant and people who are considered overweight will also be eligible starting on March 29.

DHS Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said people who qualify won’t need to provide proof of their medical condition to their vaccinator.

“Some vaccinators may take people at their word, others may want them to sign some simple form that attests that 'yes, I am a person who has one of these conditions,'” she said.

David Goldman/AP

FILE - This Nov. 19, 2013 file photo shows a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention logo at the agency's federal headquarters in Atlanta. On Monday, Nov. 16, 2020, the CDC released new guidance stating that new mothers can breastfeed if they either have COVID-19 or suspect they have the virus. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

While DHS is following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance for the qualifying medical conditions, the state is going against CDC advice for the rest of phase 1C.

The CDC recommends ‘other essential workers’ such as restaurant, gas station, construction workers and many more industries be included. Willems Van Dijk said those workers will have to wait until May when the vaccine is expected to be available to everyone 16 and older.

“We still don’t have 5.8 million vaccines or even 4.6 million vaccines which is all the adults. So we still need to do a balancing of people most at risk with vaccine supply,” she said.

Those eligible currently in the 1B phase include teachers, child care workers, grocery store workers, public transit workers and people enrolled in Medicaid's long-term care programs.

John Minchillo/AP

FILE - In this March 11, 2020 photo, a laboratory technician prepares COVID-19 patient samples for semi-automatic testing at Northwell Health Labs, in Lake Success, N.Y. The first case of the South African coronavirus variant has been discovered in a New York state resident, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021. The South African variant case involved a resident of Long Island's Nassau County. The sequencing was conducted at Opentrons Labworks Inc's Pandemic Response Lab, a New York City-based commercial lab similar to this one, and verified at the Wadsworth Center in Albany. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

Milwaukee County meanwhile says it is working hard to get vaccine doses to those who are eligible and want one. You can view the latest information on that effort here.

Front line essential workers, people in Medicaid long-term care programs, and non-frontline essential health care employees who live or work in Milwaukee can now make appointments either online at milwaukee.gov/covidvax or by calling 414-286-6800.

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