NEW JERSEY – New Jersey officials say they are dealing with problems caused by the winter weather that has led to the postponement of thousands of appointments for COVID vaccines and other issues.
Appointments that were postponed when six COVID-19 mega-vaccination sites closed this week due to the winter storm are currently being rescheduled, state officials announced during a news conference on Wednesday.
The state’s six locations were closed on Monday and Tuesday, but reopened on Wednesday, Deputy Health Commissioner Dr. David Aldinaro said during a news conference on Wednesday.
They were closed when the state of emergency was declared for New Jersey due to the storm. On Wednesday, Governor Phil Murphy said the state of emergency was still in place.
These sites were able to reschedule those appointments over the course of this week, said Adinaro, who was speaking while New Jersey health commissioner Judith Persichilli was in quarantine.
Anyone affected by Monday and Tuesday closings should have received a call, text message or email from the health care system or another operational partner at a vaccination facility to have their appointment rescheduled, said Aldinaro.
Over the weekend, each location was aware that a storm was coming and they had contingency plans to ensure everyone was still vaccinated this week, he said.
The statewide vaccine call center, however, remained operational during the storm and continued to pre-register individuals, answer questions and provide contact information for the sites, said Aldinaro. But they did not make appointments for Monday or Tuesday due to the storm.
The state is assessing the full impact of the storm on availability of consultations and expects to start scheduling soon, he said.
Anyone who receives notification of cancellation through the state system will be notified of reprogramming by the state system, he said.
Anyone who made an appointment through another system will be reprogrammed by that system, he said.
Appointments will begin in waves, officials said. Before the storm, they hoped to hire more operators. In fact, the state had started scheduling consultations for the second dose on Saturday, but that process was suspended when the sites were closed and it was clear that the state would have to reschedule the consultations, Adinaro said.
He said “thousands” of notifications for second dose appointments were sent before the break.
“We hope to resume sending these notifications soon, probably today,” said Adinaro. “Second doses will be administered within the time window recommended by the CDC.”
The nor’easter also forced Bergen New Bridge Medical Center to cancel appointments on Monday and Tuesday, but those people may still be vaccinated this week.
Paramus Hospital will honor consultations canceled because of the blizzard by vaccinating these people from Wednesday to Saturday. Read More: Bergen New Bridge resumes COVID vaccinations after Nor’easter
All “mega-sites” have received their shipments, and most of the time vaccines are due to arrive on Wednesday or Thursday, Adinaro said. All doses are counted, according to Murphy.
While the storm interrupted the state’s vaccination operations, Adinaro said more and more people were being vaccinated. On Wednesday, 837,225 New Jersey residents were vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“We continue to see increases in allocations, and the federal government assures us that we will continue to receive all second dose allocations,” said Adinaro. “Our hope is that the federal government will continue to increase the supply of vaccines, but the doses are still very limited, so we continue to ask the population for patience. There is still an imbalance between supply and demand ”.
Below are the locations for New Jersey’s six vaccination “mega-sites”:
- Bergen County: Meadowlands
- Morris County: Rockaway Townsquare Mall
- Middlesex County: New Jersey Convention and Exhibition Center
- Burlington County: Moorestown Mall
- Gloucester County: Rowan College of South Jersey
- Atlantic County: Atlantic City Convention Center
Even if you are not yet eligible to receive a COVID-19, New Jersey residents can pre-register online and will be notified when an appointment is available.