A year after the start of the pandemic, more than 2.8 million New Jersey residents received the coronavirus vaccine as the state continues a widespread continuation in which the demand for vaccine appointments continues to outweigh the current stockpile.
Teachers and daycare workers were recently added to the list of eligible vaccine recipients, along with health workers, first responders, people over 65 and those with chronic health conditions.
While Gov. Phil Murphy initially announced that educators would only be eligible for the shot on March 15, the date has been pushed back to last week to comply with President Joe Biden’s call to prioritize teachers. However, other groups, including transport and public safety workers, as well as groups at increased risk for serious diseases due to COVID, will be eligible from 15 March.
Further expansion is planned for March 29, to which employees in food service, hospitality, elderly care and other industries will also be eligible.
Although tens of thousands of Garden State residents will get this chance throughout the month, there are reports that ineligible people are lying about getting the chance sooner. Residents who stick to the honor system and wait until they are eligible to be vaccinated may get the chance sooner than expected, as Biden announced Thursday night that all adults must be eligible for the COVID vaccination by May 1st.
The eligible diversification is diversification in the number of federally approved vaccines, as three in total – the Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Janssen vaccines – are now available to the public. In addition, the list of vaccination sites has grown into state-owned pharmacies such as Wegmans, Stop & Shop, CVS and Rite Aid, the latter two of which are involved in a federal retail pharmacy program with the state.
Walmart and Sam’s Club also announced Thursday that vaccine appointments are available in 34 of their stores across the state. On Tuesday, CDC director Rochelle Walensky said the agency was investigating a partnership with Dollar General stores to store and distribute the vaccine – an action that would particularly benefit rural towns in the state with limited access. to other supermarket chains.
New Jersey also expanded its COVID-19 vaccine distribution program last month to include a number of worship services and community centers.
All New Jersey residents can pre-register for the vaccine through the online COVID-19 vaccine registration website. The state is also offering an appointment vaccination call center, which resumed planning appointments earlier this week after suspending this service temporarily in February following reports that people had been suspended for hours trying to get through, as well as that others were unable to make appointments at all.
New Jersey does not have a streamlined vaccine vaccination system, which means that counties, municipalities, health care systems and other institutions make appointments themselves.
Many of these entities provide useful online and telephonic resources for people who want to get information about scheduling an appointment or help others who are not technically proficient or who do not have easy access to a computer.
Residents who are still struggling to plan appointments in light of the overwhelming demand are also turning to a number of online resources. These include New Jersey Covid Vaccine Info, a Facebook group where people can ask questions, provide guidance, and even help each other plan appointments to receive the COVID-19 vaccine; and NJ Vaccine Matchmakers, a group of several hundred volunteers working exclusively to secure the vaccine appointments for the elderly.
Two Twitter accounts, @nj_vaccine and @ C19VaxxUpdates, also regularly posts information about vaccine opportunities and appointments.
An appointment is required at almost all vaccination sites. Cases in which people were able to get a chance without planning ahead are extremely rare – not least because even if officials are willing to remove the information from people hoping to get a chance in the place of an appointment without showing up, they won ‘contact them not necessarily.
New Jersey residents who are lucky enough to book more than one appointment should cancel the unnecessary one to open slots for others. Appointments with second doses should be scheduled at the same entity where the first dose was received.
“Because we have a challenging supply situation and no centralized scheduling, it’s obviously good to try to get appointments in different places,” said Leslie Kantor, a professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health. “If you get more than one, cancel one.”
Vaccination mega-sites
The Rockaway Townsquare in Morris county, one of the six mega-sites for coronavirus vaccination, is planning online appointments with the Atlantic Health System, which also allows individuals to sign up to receive vaccinations sent to their phone or email address.
On the vaccinations mega-premises at the Atlantic City Convention Centerappointments are made online by AtlantiCare by creating an account.
Both in the Moorestown Mall Burlington county and the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Middlesex county requires qualified individuals to first complete a separate online enrollment form with Virtua Health and Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health, respectively, after which they will receive an email or text message to schedule their appointment. The Vaccination Center for Meadowlands Racing and Entertainment Complex in Bergen county requires individuals to do the same with Hackensack Meridian Health.
The Rowan College of South Jersey in Gloucester county make appointments through registrations made on the nationwide website.
Provincial vaccination sites
In addition to mega-vaccination sites, qualifying New Jersey residents can follow a myriad of other ways to make an appointment to receive the vaccine.
The Department of Health in Burlington county has partnered with the state and Virtua Health to operate the Burlington County mega-website at the Moorestown Mall, and announced on its website that the country will not receive vaccines for new first-rate clinics in the coming weeks. The county previously operated clinics at the Burlington County Emergency Services Training Center in Westampton.
Appointments in Burlington County can also be made by going to CVS Pharmacy, Rite Aid or Boyd’s Pharmacy websites, contacting ShopRite Pharmacy, calling their local Walmart or Sam’s Club, or by visiting Wegmans’ website or to visit. a pharmacy in Mount Laurel that offers vaccinations.
Residents can also electronically contact Riverside Medical Group’s urgent care facility in Willingboro or Riverside Medical Group in Moorestown, make appointments with the Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Brown Mills by registering with the state in advance, or appointments with the Southern Family Centers in Jersey. in Buttonwood or Burlington City.
Residents of Hunterdon county will be able to receive a vaccine at clinics in Flemington and coordinated by the department of health by calling the county using the new appointment platform. In addition, they can try to make an appointment with the ShopRite pharmacy in Flemington or Clinton, or the CVS pharmacy in Flemington. Eligible residents can also schedule an appointment at one of Hunterdon Healthcare’s many clinics by adding their names to the Vaccination Waiting List.
Hunterdon Healthcare also offers a vaccination center, which encourages residents to call if they do not receive a confirmation email after adding themselves to the waiting list.
There are currently dozens of vaccination opportunities Essex county, where medical centers, including Hackensack Meridian Health, contact residents to schedule appointments, and various Newark Community Health Centers that schedule appointments by phone.
In addition to ShopRite, Stop & Shop, Rite Aid and CVS pharmacies and small urgent care facilities, there are also health care facilities in Essex county administering the vaccine, ranging from Vanguard Medical Group – which only accepts the vaccine appointments to its patients through an online schedule app – and St. Michael’s Hospital – where appointments can be made online.
Essex County also offers a range of vaccine clinics for which appointments can be made online.
People who live, work or go to school in Warren county can make an appointment to receive the vaccine online at North Warren High School, the Southwest Branch Library or the Good Will Fire Company.
Warren County residents can make appointments for Hunterdon family medicine at Riverfield in Washington through the use of Hunterdon Healthcare’s Vaccine Waitlist, or through the Atlantic Health System for Hackettstown Medical Center. St. Luke’s in Phillipsburg requires all individuals wishing to receive the vaccine to set up a MyChart account, through which they can complete the hospital’s short questionnaire and then be notified to plan their vaccination.
The Zufall Health Center is Dover also calls eligible patients to inform them of appointments.
What to do if there are limited vaccine options
In other provinces, vaccine opportunities are very limited. Apart from appointments with ShopRite pharmacies in Rio Grande or Marmora, the CVS pharmacy in Villas, the Rite Aid in Wildwood or the Walmart in Rio Grande, Cape May County residents can get the chance at the provincial clinics by pre-registering for the vaccine with the state. The Departments of Health for Medium sex, Somerset, en Trademarks also coordinates appointments at the state rather than at provincial level.
In Salem county, individuals have the option to make an appointment for vaccination clinics organized by the Department of Health and Human Services. They can also get the chance by contacting the Rite Aid in Pilesgrove, Penns Grove or Salem; contact the Walmart in Pennsville; contact the Albertsons Pharmacy in Pennsville; call the Salem Medical Center; or by making an online appointment with Southern Jersey Family Medical Center in Salem.
Some New Jersey residents live in municipalities that have created coronavirus vaccination options for their residents. The Health Department of Vineland in Cumberland county offers vaccine clinics, for which Cumberland County residents can only schedule appointments online.
Hoboken in Hudson county worked with Riverside Medical Group and Hoboken University Medical Center to vaccinate residents. Qualifying groups must first complete an online form, after which a staff member will contact them to officially schedule an appointment.
How to register to receive the vaccine
Individuals can register here to receive a coronavirus vaccine from the State Department of Health.
Individuals can schedule appointments with the State Vaccination Center for vaccination by calling 855-568-0545.
The full list of vaccination opportunities in the state, according to provinces, can be found here.
More information on how to get the COVID-19 vaccine in New Jersey can be found here.
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Caroline Fassett can be reached at [email protected].