COVID19 Vaccinations Make Slow Progress in New Jersey

In New Jersey 265,000 doses of COVID19 Vaccine have been delivered and only 62,901 Individuals having been Vaccinated

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Trenton NJ, NJ Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli  reports on New Jersey’s vaccination efforts  , she spoke at Governor Murphy press conference last Wednesday . “New Jersey continues our journey to vaccinate 70% of the eligible adult population by vaccinating individuals who fall into Phase 1A. New Jersey has been awarded over 400,000 vaccine doses in this month. Of that, approximately 120,000 doses have been reserved for long-term care facilities, residents and employees; 280,000 doses have been allocated to hospitals and our community sites. Of that, approximately 265,000 doses have actually been delivered. The remainder is expected at the end of this week. In New Jersey, we’re expecting an additional 106,000 doses during the first week of January. Of that, 53,000 doses have been reserved for long-term care facilities, and another 53,000 allocated to hospitals and community sites.”

“As of this morning, 62,901 individuals have been vaccinated. We started in mid-December by fortifying our hospitals, including prioritizing those at higher risk of exposure to COVID-19. This week, New Jersey’s plan continued into our vulnerable skilled nursing facilities, using the CDC-supported pharmacy partnership program for long-term care. To date, 539 facilities have been scheduled to receive their first vaccinations through this program. The federal program expects to vaccinate more than 109,000 residents and staff through the beginning of February, with more sites of congregate living to be added in the coming weeks.

As Phase 1A progresses, we are expanding access to vaccine to non-hospital-based healthcare personnel. To increase awareness of sites where these individuals can be vaccinated, the department sent out letters to eligible healthcare personnel, including certified nurse aides, physicians, EMS, hospice workers, dialysis center workers, the Medical Reserve Corps, school nurses, and direct support professionals that work in IDD, intellectual or developmental disability centers, to alert them that they are eligible to be vaccinated. We have shared a list of sites and encouraged healthcare personnel to call the site’s phone number to schedule an appointment.

Vaccine recipients that fall into Phase 1A can choose the vaccine dispensing site nearest to their home or work. This information has also been posted on the COVID-19 hub at covid19.nj.gov/vaccine. The list will continue to be updated as more sites are ready to serve healthcare personnel in the 1A category. To date, over 200 sites have been stood up.

As a reminder, healthcare personnel are paid and unpaid persons serving in healthcare settings who have the potential for direct or indirect exposure to patients or infectious materials. This includes any type of worker within a healthcare center. For example, licensed healthcare professionals like doctors, nurses, pharmacists and dentists; staff like receptionist janitors, mortuary services, laboratory technicians, consultants per diem and contractors who are directly employed and present at the facilities; unpaid workers like health care professionals, students, trainees, volunteers and essential caregivers; community health workers, doulas, public health professionals like the Medical Reserve Corps; personnel with variable venues like EMS, paramedics, funeral staff, and autopsy workers and other paid and unpaid people who work in healthcare settings.

In January, New Jersey will launch its statewide vaccine scheduling system, the New Jersey vaccine scheduling system, NJVSS, will help all potential Phase 1A vaccine recipients to identify nearby points of dispensing and schedule an appointment. Once this registration system is live, another notification will be sent to all eligible populations.

Moving on to my daily report, as the Governor shared, our hospitals reported 3,727 hospitalizations of COVID-19 positive patients and PUI, patients under investigation, with 701 individuals in critical care and 67% of those critical care patients are on ventilators.

There are two new reports of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, for a total of 69 cases in our state. These children have either tested positive for active COVID-19 infection, or have had antibody tests that were positive for COVID-19 exposure. Fortunately, in New Jersey, there are no new deaths at this point in time.

At the state veterans homes, sadly in Vineland, there are two additional deaths among their residents. Vineland reports a cumulative total of seven deaths in the Vineland home. At our state psychiatric hospitals, there have been eight positive cases among patients at Ancora, and six positive cases at Trenton Psych.

In New Jersey on December 26^th, the percent positivity was 15.19%. The Northern part of the state reports 14.79%, the Central part of the state 16.03%, and the Southern part of the state 14.60.

That concludes my daily report. Stay safe, and remember for each other and for us all, please take the call, download the COVID Alert NJ app and have a very safe New Year’s.”