The effort to vaccinate New Jersey residents against COVID-19 advanced on Thursday, while Governor Phil Murphy announced that Garden State would deliver more doses than expected in the coming weeks, but the demand for consultations still far outweighs available supplies.
New Jersey will receive about 130,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine in each of the next three weeks, about 30,000 more per week than originally thought, Murphy said on Wednesday.
The increase in distribution follows President Joe Biden’s announcement on Tuesday that the United States is increasing deliveries to states in the next three weeks and hopes to provide enough doses to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer or early fall.
As of Thursday, 680,061 doses of vaccine have been administered in New Jersey. Of these, 557,175 received the first of the two-dose injections, while more than 100,000 received the second dose, according to the state’s COVID-19 panel.
The news comes when state health officials announce that several other cases of the highly contagious coronavirus variant, first discovered in the UK, have emerged in Ocean, Essex and Morris counties.
The variant was discovered in people between 10 and 65 years of age and is associated with the death of a person who had serious problems, health officials said.
Currently in New Jersey, the following groups are eligible for the vaccine: healthcare professionals, including those working in pharmacies; residents and long-term care workers, including those in prisons and psychiatric hospitals; first to respond; people aged 65 and over, individuals aged 16 to 64 with serious medical conditions and smokers.
New Jersey launched a hotline Monday morning to schedule vaccinations for those who are eligible – 855-568-0545.
More groups will become eligible for the vaccine as inoculation continues. The state’s goal is to vaccinate 70% of the adult population – or 4.7 million adults – in six months.
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Anthony G. Attrino can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Meet NJ.com on Facebook.