By: Alysa Rubin, Writer / Follow South Jersey Public Health Intern
SOUTH JERSEY — In yet another significant mark reached in the fight against COVID-19, New Jersey has administered more than 3.5 million total doses of vaccinations to residents.
The state surpassed the milestone on Monday morning, which marks the third consecutive week in which New Jersey put 500,000 doses in arms over a seven-day period.
According to New Jersey’s COVID-19 dashboard, the total number of vaccinations stands at 3,685,671. However, it’s important to note that vaccines like the Pfizer and Moderna shots require two doses to be considered fully effective. The dashboard also states that 2,444,037 New Jersey residents have received at least one dose of a vaccine, while 1,311,264 people are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Currently, New Jersey is giving vaccinations to residents who fall into the 1A and 1B categories, per the state’s health department. Those include:
- Paid and unpaid healthcare workers
- Residents and workers of long-term care and high-risk congregate care facilities
- First responders including sworn law enforcement and fire professionals
- Individuals aged over 65
- Individuals aged 16-64 that have certain medical conditions that increase the risk of severe illness from the virus
- Pre-K to 12 educators and staff
- Childcare workers in licensed and registered settings
- Transportation workers
- Additional public safety workers
- Additional high-risk individuals
The state is currently more than a quarter of a way to reaching its goal of fully vaccinating 4.7 million adult residents by the end of May, but its efforts in curbing the spread of COVID-19 are nowhere near over. In addition to the huge statewide vaccination effort, Gov. Murphy said that New Jersey won’t loosen its COVID-19-related restrictions “for some time” due to the spread of new variants of the virus.
“My guess is we won’t be opening capacity for some time now because of the caseload,” he said during an appearance on CNN. “We’re watching these variants very closely. The case numbers are clearly up. We clearly have these variants in our state as we are seeing in New York City. It’s a little reminiscent of what happened last spring.”
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This article was produced by a Follow South Jersey news intern thanks to a grant provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through the New Jersey Health Initiatives program to create hyper-local news to meet the informational and health needs of the City of Bridgeton, N.J.
