The department has scheduled several vaccination clinics for special target groups in the coming weeks, following the postponement of school-based and community clinics last week.

Until an improvement in the vaccine supply, which is tight nationwide thanks to production delays, the department is focusing on vaccinating high-risk community members first, department director Cindy Bodendein said.

"The goal is to vaccinate the most vulnerable populations first," Bodendein said.

The CDC assigns vaccine to states on a weekly basis, and has allotted Wisconsin nearly 500,000 doses to date. Approximately 350,000 of those doses have arrived in the state since the start of October, the state Department of Health Services reported Monday.

Bodendein’s office received 1,400 doses on Monday, and she said she hopes to receive more weekly, with no further lags such as those seen last month.

In the meantime, the department will be bringing whatever it has to each scheduled clinic, Bodendein said.

"We would wait until we get more ... but we thought we should start getting (the vaccine) out there," Bodendein said.

The clinics will be reserved for the five population groups rated as top priority by the Centers for Disease  Control and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The groups are: pregnant women, persons who provide care for infants 6 months old or younger, health care and emergency medical services workers who have direct contact with patients or infectious material, children between 6 months and 4 years old, and children and adolescents between 5 and 18 years old who have chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, asthma, arthritis, or cardiovascular disease that raise the risk of complications.

There are approximately 1,000 pregnant women in Sauk County, and the number of children between 6 months and 4 years old is about 3,200, Bodendein said.

She said more hospitalizations related to H1N1 have been seen in the younger age groups, and, because infants under 6 months old are too young to be vaccinated, their caretakers are also high priority.

Immunization clinics which had been planned in schools to cover the county’s approximately 11,000 school-aged children are still postponed, as well as several community-based clinics.

Bodendein said they will resume as more vaccine becomes available to the county.

"We are asking that people wait until the target subset group they are in is notified that the clinics are open to them," she said. "We encourage everyone to be patient."

Upcoming clinic dates for the specified groups are:

Nov. 5, Walnut Hill Church, 1900 East St., Baraboo, 2 -6 p.m.

Nov. 10, Trinity Baptist Church, S3205 Golf Course Rd., 2 -6 p.m.

Nov. 12, West Square Building, Room B-24, 505 Broadway, Baraboo, 2-6 p.m.

Nov. 17, Prairie du Sac Fire Department, 855 17th St., Prairie du Sac, 2-6 p.m.