Nearly 2 million people in New Jersey have been completely vaccinated with more on course to get the chance soon, as Governor Phil Murphy announced earlier this week that all New Jersey residents 16 years and older will be eligible for the vaccine from April 19th.
The latest extension of suitability prompted President Joe Biden’s announcement that all adults should be eligible in all states by April 19, almost two full weeks earlier than his original May 1 deadline.
Earlier this week, groups, including residents aged 55 and over, people aged 16 and older with mental or developmental disabilities, teachers and staff members of higher education and communication supporters were eligible for the shot.
Teachers and daycare workers, transportation workers, public safety personnel, tribal community members, migrant workers, and production, agricultural, food distribution workers were among the groups eligible for the shot in March.
Healthcare professionals, the elderly, first responders and people with chronic health conditions have been eligible for the shot for several months.
The expansion of suitability is accompanied by the increasing availability of the vaccine in the state at various sites, most notably on the COVID-19 vaccination mega-website in Atlantic County, where thousands of appointments have been available since earlier this week.
To help people find and plan available vaccine appointments, New Jersey recently set up an online system that collects information from various scheduling platforms, several times an hour, to let people know when the appointments are open.
These scheduling platforms are those offered by counties, municipalities, health care systems, and other institutions that distribute the vaccine and make appointments themselves, as New Jersey does not offer a streamlined vaccine appointment system.
The list of available vaccination centers in New Jersey includes pharmacies across the state such as Wegmans, Stop & Shop, CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens, the last three of which are involved in a federal retail pharmacy program with the state.
Walmart and Sam’s Club are also planning appointments at 34 of their stores across the state, and the CDC is investigating a partnership with Dollar General stores for the storage and distribution of the vaccine – an action that is particularly targeted at rural towns in the state will be of benefit. with limited access to other supermarket chains.
New Jersey also expanded its COVID-19 vaccine distribution program to a number of worship services and community centers earlier this year. Regardless of whether they are currently eligible or not, all New Jersey residents can pre-register for the vaccine through the online COVID-19 vaccine website and the vaccine call center.
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; NJ Vaccine Matchmakers, a group of several hundred volunteers who work exclusively to secure the vaccine appointments for the elderly; and Twitter accounts @nj_vaccine and @ C19VaxxUpdates, which regularly posts information on vaccine opportunities and appointments.
Two young brothers from Mercer County also recently launched njvaxfinder.com, which centralizes available vaccination centers across the state.
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 will also allow individuals to sign up to receive vaccinations sent to their phone or email address. be sent.
At the mega-vaccination center at the Atlantic City Convention Center, appointments are made online by AtlantiCare by creating an account.
Both the Moorestown Mall in Burlington County and the vaccination website Meadowlands Racing and Entertainment Complex in Bergen County require individuals to complete an online registration form at Virtua Health and Hackensack Meridian Health, respectively, after which they will receive an email or text message. to plan their appointment.
The Rowan College of South Jersey in Gloucester County and the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Middlesex County plan appointments through registrations made throughout the site. However, the Edison website also allows qualified individuals to complete a separate online enrollment form at Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health.
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 State and Virtua Health to operate the Burlington County mega-website at Moorestown Mall. Appointments in Burlington County can also be made by visiting the CVS Pharmacy, Rite Aid, Albertson’s Pharmacy or Boyd’s Pharmacy websites, contacting ShopRite’s local websites, your local Walmart or Sam’s Club website, or Wegmans’ website. , which has a pharmacy in Mount Laurel that offers vaccinations.
Residents can also contact Riverside Medical Group in Willingboro or Moorestown electronically, make appointments with the Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Brown Mills by registering with the state in advance, or appointments with the Southern Jersey Family Medical Centers in Buttonwood or Burlington City.
Residents of Hunterdon county can receive a vaccine at clinics in Flemington and coordinated by the Department of Health through the country or using the online 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 or Lambertville. 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.
Dozens of vaccination opportunities are currently found in Essex county, where medical centers, including Hackensack Meridian Health in Montclair, contact residents to make appointments after registering with the health care provider, and several Newark Community Health Centers that schedule appointments by telephone.
In addition to ShopRite, Stop & Shop, Rite Aid, CVS and other pharmacies and urgent care facilities, there are also health care facilities in Essex county administering the vaccine, which ranges from Vanguard Medical Group – which offers a vaccination clinic in Verona – 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 Manor.
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 create a MyChart account, allowing them to complete the hospital’s short questionnaire and then notify them of their vaccination plans.
The Zufall Health Center in Dover is also planning appointments with eligible patients.
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, there are also various CVS pharmacies in the country, 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 Middlesex, Somerset and Mercer 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 for the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccination online.
Hoboken in Hudson county worked with Riverside Medical Group and Hoboken University Medical Center to vaccinate residents. Eligible groups must first complete an online form, after which a staff member will contact them to officially schedule an appointment. Seniors or family members of seniors can also call the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) at 201-420-5621 to schedule an appointment.
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].