N.J. to open 6 COVID-19 vaccine mega-sites. Heres the list of locations. – nj.com

New Jersey is planning to open six coronavirus vaccination mega-sites across the state early next year as it rolls out inoculations in phases, with an aim to vaccinate 70% of its adult residents within six months, state officials announced Friday.

The state is also setting up a network of more than 200 satellite vaccination sites including hospitals, health and urgent care centers, chain pharmacies, and local sites, Gov. Phil Murphy said at his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton.

We expect the demand for the vaccine will outpace the supply, sate Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said. So we will need to initiate vaccine sites in phases to assure equitable distribution.

The announcement comes after New Jersey hospitals began issuing the states first vaccines to healthcare workers this week. In the first four days, 2,149 of the states 650,000 healthcare workers received their first dose of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine. They will receive their second dose in about three weeks.

The state is administering vaccines in stages, with healthcare workers and longterm care residents in the 1a category people with the most potential to be exposed to the virus. They are expected to be vaccinated through January and February.

Essential workers are in the 1b category and residents over the age of 65 and those with high-risk medical conditions are 1c. The general public will come after that.

The timing of the progression among the groups depends on the supply of vaccine to our state, Persichilli said.

Officials have said vaccines may be available to the general public in April or May.

The mega-sites will serve as vaccination hubs, she said, with the hope of vaccinating 2,400 people a day at each location. The sites are expected to open in mid-January, at first to healthcare workers in the 1a category. The other categories will follow after that.

The sites will be located at:

Maritza Beniquez, an emergency room nurse at University Hospital in Newark, on Tuesday became the first person in New Jersey to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

The state will provide information about how to schedule an appointment at the sites next week, Persichilli said. There will be information for how the general public can sign up once availability increases, she addd.

As for the additional satellite sites, 215 facilities have signed up so far and more are expected to follow, Persichilli said.

As each successive group of New Jerseyans becomes eligible to be vaccinated, we will have the infrastructure in place to administer to every resident in those groups who wishes to be vaccinated, Murphy said. We will be ready, and we hope you will be, too.

Persichilli acknowledged the goal of vaccinating 70% of New Jersey adult residents about 4.7 million people in the next six months is a challenge.

Yes, that is aggressive. And yes, it is aspirational, the health commissioner said. But its what we need to do so this virus has no place to go.

Stressing that the vaccines are safe to take, Murphy said the state also needs residents to step forward and raise your sleeves.

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Meanwhile, officials announced Friday that non-hospital healthcare workers in New Jersey can begin getting vaccines in the coming weeks at community sites across the state. Persichilli said there will be more information on that next week.

Plus, staff members and residents at nursing homes will begin vaccinations Dec. 28. a week later than other states because the state missed a federal deadline. More than 7,000 at those facilities in New Jersey have died from coronavirus complications.

In addition to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Modernas vaccine is expected to be approved by the federal government as soon as Friday evening.

But officials said New Jerseys allocation of vaccine doses have been reduced by about 20% through the end of this year, including the expected addition of Moderna doses.

The state had expected to receive more than 492,075 doses this month for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but that number has dropped to 392,800, Persichilli said.

I dont think weve got a satisfactory reason why, Murphy said. Its nothing personal. Its apparently every American state has received a smaller allocation.

Murphy has warned New Jersey residents that even though the vaccine rollout has begun, the next few weeks could be tough. New Jersey has already announced more than 1,000 deaths in December, the most in any month since June.

The vaccines mere presence in our state isnt enough to move the needle, Murphy said. We will need to embrace it and we will need to keep up with our other practices. Everything, together, is how well ultimately defeat this virus.

On Friday, the state reported another 3,976 cases and 44 additional confirmed deaths, though hospitalizations, transmission rate, and positivity rate all dropped for the first time in a long time, Murphy said.

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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.

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N.J. to open 6 COVID-19 vaccine mega-sites. Heres the list of locations. - nj.com