MADISON, Delete. (WMTV) – On Thursday, the Dept. of Health Services unveiled new guidelines to determine who would be eligible for the coronavirus vaccine when eligibility expands later this month.
Unlike previous rounds, which were mainly determined by age or occupation, the latter is based solely on medical history, more specifically if someone has a medical condition associated with a higher risk of serious illness if they were to get COVID-19.
To be eligible for this latest expansion, an individual must have at least one of the 20 medical conditions included in a list released by the agency on Thursday. DHS estimated that more than two million people in Wisconsin would be eligible.
Three of the listed conditions are linked to the Body Mass Index (BMI), a statistic often cited to determine whether someone is overweight or obese. With the new statistics, anyone with a BMI above 25 kg / m2 would be eligible for the vaccine.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides a resource to help people estimate their BMI by entering their height and weight. It defines a BMI between 25 and 30 as “overweight”, while anything over 30 is as “obese.” Additionally, for DHS listings, a number over 40 is considered “severe obesity.”
The full list of medical conditions that determine a person’s eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine is available here.
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