COVID-19 vaccine update for the week of Feb. 8

The vaccine supply Gundersen receives from federal and state coordinators is about 80% less than what we need to vaccinate the more than 70,000 Gundersen patients and staff currently eligible. Gundersen continues to vaccinate more than 4,000 people each week across our system, but demand is far exceeding supply.

Gundersen is not alone. Low vaccine supply is impacting other vaccinators locally, regionally and nationally. Specifically, first-dose allocations from Pfizer are essentially unavailable to anyone. Remaining Pfizer doses are being held for second-dose vaccinations.

• For this week's appointments, we have received only 20% of the vaccine supply we requested to meet the needs of our scheduled patients.
• Due to these lower-than-expected vaccine doses received from the state of Wisconsin, we are cancelling all (about 1,650) first dose vaccine appointments between Thursday, Feb. 11 and Tuesday, Feb. 16 at our La Crosse and Onalaska vaccination locations.
• If you are scheduled for a first dose appointment between Feb. 11-16, we will reach out in the coming weeks and reschedule as soon as supply allows.
• Appointments outside of this time frame will remain scheduled, however patients should be prepared for future cancellations, based on supply.
• We will continue to provide second doses to scheduled patients.
• Please note this impacts Wisconsin allocation only.

Please be patient as we await a new supply each week. We will continue working with our community partners to make sure everyone who wants the vaccine receives it.

While patients wait, they can:

Sign up for MyChart
When it's time for them to schedule a vaccine appointment, patients will get a MyChart message and be able to schedule conveniently in MyChart.

Answer the phone
We will call patients who don't have a MyChart account to schedule a vaccination appointment. 

Stay up-to-date
Check gundersenhealth.org, our social media channels and local media for regular COVID-19 vaccine updates.