As part of New Jersey’s planned launch of half a million doses of the coronavirus vaccine next month, health professionals in Bergen County, once the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, will begin receiving the vaccine on Monday. .
Starting on Monday, frontline health workers will begin receiving doses of the Modern COVID-19 vaccine, the second vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, announced Bergen County executive Jim Tedesco. The county has received 1,000 doses distributed to health professionals in Bergen County and will be administered at the Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, Tedesco said in a statement.
Category 1A healthcare professionals – frontline workers who deal with COVID-19 patients – who have not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19 through their employer or the Long Term Care Pharmaceutical Partnership Program are eligible to receive the vaccines. Skilled workers must live in Bergen County or work in a 1A health facility, the statement said.
“It is essential that those on the front lines in our fight against the virus receive the vaccine as soon as is humanly possible,” said Tedesco in the statement. “With the arrival of Moderna’s vaccine, we now have the ability to provide protection for a major part of the critical health workforce in Bergen County through a partnership between the county and Bergen New Bridge Medical Center.”
Modern vaccine box COVID-19.Courtesy of Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco
Qualified health professionals will need to register for the Modern vaccine at bergencovidvaccine.com, the statement said. Vaccinations will be administered at the Annex’s Alternative Care Center at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, 230 East Ridgewood Avenue, Paramus. Eligible workers must show a professional license, employer identity or a pay stub showing employment in a category 1A health facility when they arrive.
The unit has the capacity to handle more than 300 vaccinations a day, making it a “big” dispensation point for the state, according to the statement.
“We are proud to partner with our County Executive and Bergen County to provide a vaccination program for healthcare workers and, as vaccine distribution is implemented, for our communities,” said Bergen New Bridge President , Deborah Visconi, in the statement. “Vaccination is a critical component in protecting our communities, especially those that have been most affected by COVID-19, while also giving us a way out of this pandemic.
The launch in Bergen County, which at one point had more COVID-19 cases than 38 other states, is the latest in the full court press against coronavirus through coordinated launches of recently approved vaccines.
In the two weeks since the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine was administered to an emergency room nurse at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, she pressed to deliver one of the two FDA-approved vaccines to people as quickly and widely as possible.
On December 21, Governor Phil Murphy said that about 500,000 New Jersey residents will receive the COVID-19 vaccine next month, with approximately 212,000 vaccines expected in the state last week.
Health professionals in Ocean County received the Modern vaccine at a drive-thru clinic in Toms River, with Murphy on hand to assist with the first doses being administered. In Hudson County, health professionals at Palisades Medical Center received more than 600 doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.
Also on Saturday, Essex County executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr., announced that Essex County had received its first shipment of the Moderna vaccine and that the first vaccines were administered on Saturday. Among the first to receive the vaccines were Dr. Lionel Anicette, the medical director of the Essex County Correctional Center, Dr. Naipaul Rambara, the medical director of Occupational Health and Medicine at the Essex County Hospital Center and a nurse at the Essex County West Caldwell School of Technology.
Vaccines also arrived in Newark, the largest city in the state and particularly affected by COVID-19. The city was plagued by deaths and illnesses, exacerbated by a series of institutional deficiencies and with most deaths concentrated mainly in black communities.
On Saturday, the city’s public security director, Anthony F. Ambrose, received the vaccine, encouraging all early respondents to get vaccinated.
With the holiday season over, the state does not plan to slow down its efforts, opening six coronavirus vaccination “mega-sites” across the Garden State. The goal is to vaccinate 70% of adult residents in six months, officials said.
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Rodrigo Torrejon can be found at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @rodrigotorrejon.