MADISON, Wis. — This Saturday, June 26, marks the end of an era. The community testing and vaccination services at the Alliant Energy Center will come to an end after more than a year of operating.
Public Health Madison & Dane County conducted roughly 425,000 COVID-19 tests and administered more than 85,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines at Alliant.
COVID Tester Michelle Miller said the last two days of operation are “exciting but sad at the same time”. She said the last several weeks they’ve been seeing “less testing, less traffic but more children now.”
Public Health’s COVID Vaccine Deputy Tess Ellens said her final two days at Alliant are exciting but sad.
“It means we have really great vaccine rates, we see that cases are low,” Ellens said. “It feels very strange to be closing such a big site but it gives us hope for doing work differently in the future.”
Many of the people who have been staffing the facility since October said the hardest part about closing this weekend is not getting to see the people they’ve worked so closely with through such trying times.
“This has probably been the best job that I’ve ever worked at,” said data entry lead Amanda School.
Scheel was formerly working in retail but found her life’s mission after bringing thousands through to the other side of this pandemic. She said it feels good “knowing how much work we did here and how many people we helped save.”
Ellens echoed her sentiments.
“It’s amazing to see what’s possible when a ton of different people come together,” she said.
At the peak of the pandemic, there were close to 2,000 people coming to Alliant for a COVID test or vaccine. Now, they’re seeing around 200.
Ellens said just because the Alliant is closing up, doesn’t mean their work is over just yet.
“We will be moving some of our services to mobile vaccine clinics around Dane County as well as moving into our regular immunization spaces. So we will be shifting some staff over to different types of work.”
Public Health will continue to provide testing and vaccinatio
Testing is by appointment only at South Madison Office (2230 S. Park Street):
- Tuesdays: 8am – 4pm
- Thursdays: 12pm – 8pm
- Saturdays: 8am – 4pm
Vaccination by appointment or drop-in:
- Monday: South Madison Office (2230 S. Park Street) – 8am – 4pm
- Tuesday: East Washington Office (2705 East Washington Ave) – 12pm – 8pm
- Wednesday: South Madison Office (2230 S. Park Street) – 12pm – 8pm
- Thursday: East Washington Office (2705 East Washington Ave) – 8am – 4pm
- Friday: South Madison Office (2230 S. Park Street) – 8am – 4pm
Mobile vaccination efforts are ongoing, with several first and second dose clinics happening every week throughout Dane County. See the map to find one near you or for more information, visit here.
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