New Jersey’s latest list of COVID-19 vaccination sites now includes more than 200 locations across the country, including six mega-sites, though the availability of federal government doses is still making appointments scarce.
Two of the state’s mega-sites, which are meant to vaccinate thousands of people every day, had to close for a day due to a lack of available doses, officials said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal government has so far distributed 989,900 pieces of the vaccine to the state. Government officials said they expect to receive about 100,000 a week over the next few weeks.
The coronavirus dashboard in New Jersey shows that as of Tuesday, 605,397 doses have been administered. Of these, 523,008 were first doses.
New Jersey on Monday launched an appointment call center and a toll-free number to help residents who were having trouble negotiating the state’s online registry. The call center is staffed with 250 workers and responds to residents of both English and Spanish. The number is 855-568-0545.
The vaccine is currently available to 65 people and older, those between the ages of 16 and 64 with certain medical conditions, smokers, health care workers, long-term caregivers, others in congregations, police and firefighters. It covers more than 4 million people.
In the next six months, New Jersey plans to vaccinate about 4.7 million people. The general public should be able to receive the vaccinations by April or May, officials said.
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Anthony G. Attrino can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.