By: Michael Mandarino, Follow South Jersey Managing Editor
SOUTH JERSEY — Five million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in New Jersey, and two million people are fully inoculated against the current global pandemic.
According to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard, New Jersey has administered a total of 5,141,870 doses of the three approved vaccine models. Of those, 2,030,971 people have received their second dose of Pfizer or Moderna’s models or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine — making them fully inoculated against COVID-19. All figures are up to date as of 9:02 a.m. Friday.
New Jersey reached the 5,000,000-dose milestone on Thursday, 11 days after hitting 4,000,000 total doses administered. The state has also administered nearly 600,000 second doses (or single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccines) in the past 11 days. As of Friday morning, New Jersey is now 43.2% of the way towards reaching its goal of fully inoculating 4.7 million adult residents — or 70% of its adult population — by the end of May.
Although there’s still a little ways to go before 70% of New Jersey adults are vaccinated against COVID-19, the state has ramped up its vaccination efforts in recent weeks. All New Jerseyans aged 16 and older will become eligible to make appointments to get vaccinated on April 19 — in line with President Joe Biden’s request to states that haven’t opened up eligibility to all adults yet.
New Jersey opened up vaccine eligibility to all adults aged 55 and older and a number of frontline essential workers — including college professors, real estate/housing workers, and members of the press — on April 5. You can see who’s currently eligible to get vaccinated here. Additionally, the state launched its COVID-19 vaccine appointment finder beta, which is a website that lets residents browse and search for available vaccine appointments throughout the state, last week. The website lists off every single place where COVID-19 vaccines are administered in the state and allows residents to filter by county.
In South Jersey, Cumberland County’s Department of Health is hosting a vaccine clinic in which 800 doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson model will be administered to community members. Northfield’s Veterans’ Affairs facility will also host a COVID-19 vaccine clinic for veterans and their loved ones on Saturday.
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