Hundreds of thousands of New Jersey residents have been trying to get an appointment for a coronavirus vaccine since Wednesday, after Governor Phil Murphy opened access to the vaccine to more than 4 million people based on expanded federal guidelines.
The announcement last week resulted in a multitude of calls and online attempts to get an appointment. Many failed to find one and many others said they had to search and spend a lot of time before getting a slot.
If you are eligible, you can apply directly with vaccine providers.
They can be found on a list provided by the state Department of Health, said Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the department of health.
These locations include county and municipal locations, individual hospitals, pharmacies and ShopRite locations.
“The list of vaccination sites in the state is a list of facilities that received the vaccine,” said Leusner. “The supply of vaccines is limited, so individuals may not be able to make an appointment immediately.”
The list includes phone numbers and websites for those who have records online.
We need to make an appointment, said health commissioner Judy Persichilli. The facility does not accept visits, she said.
“People should sign up with any registration site where they want to get the vaccine,” said Leusner. “We will reach everyone.”
You can also access the state’s pre-registration system, called the New Jersey Vaccine Scheduling System (NJVSS), but it does not automatically make an appointment, officials said.
When you pre-register, you will be notified when you will be eligible to schedule an appointment, said Governor Phil Murphy last week. The state will provide a link where you can select a location for the vaccine and then make an appointment. State officials did not say on Friday how long it could take to get an appointment through the state system.
More than 1.5 million people had already registered on the state’s website by Friday, Murphy said. As of Friday, 66,000 had received notification that they were eligible to register for an appointment, and of those, 10,371 had scheduled an appointment through the state’s website, officials said.
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But not all vaccine administrators are connected to the state’s website, health commissioner Judy Persichilli said on Friday. Some vaccination centers are connected to the state system, while others, such as hospitals, have their own registration systems, she said.
“It’s a little bit heavier than we would like,” she said.
The state said there will eventually be more than 250 sites offering vaccines, however, the state has not released information on how many of those sites are linked to the state’s registration system. And many people said they made the reservation by going directly to a vaccine administrator, including hospitals, counties, clinics and retail suppliers.
But at least one provider listed on the state’s website, Inspira Health, only accepts inquiries through the state’s website, said spokesman Paul Simon.
Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill and Inspira Medical Center Vineland are not accepting telephone consultations at their two vaccination sites, he said. The two sites received 1,600 vaccine orders on Thursday alone, he said.
“Any member of the general public who is currently eligible to receive the vaccine will need to register and then register (choose a date and time) through the state’s website, covidvaccine.nj.gov,” said Simon.
You can also access four of the state’s six mega-sites.
The open locations are the Moorestown Mall in Burlington County, Rowan College of South Jersey in Gloucester County, the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Middlesex County and Rockaway Townsquare in Morris County. Two additional locations will be opened later in East Rutherford and Atlantic City.
Each of the mega-sites asks people to register through the sites’ online registration systems. Walk-ins are not accepted.
Many locations across the state do not have enough vaccine supply to meet demand, so some have paused their reservation systems and will only make more dates available when they receive more doses.
State officials said that as of now the state expects to receive another 100,000 doses per week and expects those numbers to increase in the coming weeks and months. Persichilli said last week that the state could handle 470,000 weekly vaccinations if the federal government could provide the doses.
At the moment, those eligible for a vaccine include those 65 years of age and people aged 16 to 64 with certain underlying medical conditions that the CDC lists as putting people at “increased risk of serious illness” if infected with the virus: cancer , chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Down syndrome, heart problems such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies, those in an immunocompromised state by solid organ transplantation, obesity, severe obesity, pregnancy, sickle cell disease, smoking and type 2 diabetes.
“Serious illness” of COVID-19 is defined by the CDC as the need for hospitalization, admission to the ICU, intubation or mechanical ventilation.
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NJ Advance Media reporter Avalon Zoppo contributed to this report.
Karin Price Mueller can be contacted at [email protected].