Health care workers get it first; long-term care residents, staff are next
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
New Jersey health care workers began receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday, a milestone Gov. Phil Murphy called a “momentous day.”
With fewer than 100,000 vaccines arriving in the state this week and the need to vaccinate 70 percent of the state’s 4.7 million adult residents to get to herd immunity, Murphy and state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said there is a long way to go.
“This is not the end (of the pandemic), but it is a momentous day,” Murphy said Monday at his COVID-19 press conference. “It is a day we have all been waiting for. It is a day of hope and optimism.”
The first to get vaccinated are “some of our heroic front-line health care workers,” Murphy said. “Our health care workers and long-term care facility residents and staff remains our top priority for initial vaccinations.”
Before breaking down numbers of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines anticipated in New Jersey, the governor issued a caution.
“We are also in for several hard months, especially the next six to eight weeks,” Murphy said. “As vaccinations move forward we are going to be facing stiff winds from the second wave.”
The state Department of Health was reporting another 4,805 coronavirus cases in New Jersey, bringing the total since the pandemic numbers were kept on March 4 to 405,448 as of Monday.
The department also reported another 25 deaths attributed to COVID-19 across the state, bringing that toll to 15,907, with another 1,868 probable coronavirus-related deaths.
As of Monday there were 3,635 coronavirus patients being treated in New Jersey hospitals with 704 in intensive care. It was the first time the intensive care numbers topped 700 since the end of May, Murphy said. There were 491 patients on ventilators.
“These numbers will not magically return to zero as we provide our first vaccinations,” the governor said. “For us to reach the level of so-called herd immunity among adults that we aspire to do, it will require at least 70 percent of New Jersey’s adults to be vaccinated – 4.7 million New Jerseyans.”
That is why he and Persichilli said residents can’t let their guard down and need to continue with social distancing, limiting gatherings, especially during the holidays, wearing masks, staying home when not feeling well and practicing good hand hygiene.
Murphy made a point to address young New Jersey residents who may not fear the coronavirus because it generally has had a lesser impact on them, even though the number of cases in their age group is rising.
“The share of infections tends to skew toward young residents, but the share of deaths tends to skew towards older residents,” Murphy said. “Let that sink in. You may feel fine. You may not show a symptom … but you could be passing this on to your parents or grandparents. And essentially – I hate to say it – killing them.”
Doses arriving, who gets it
New Jersey was getting its first batch of 76,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week and is expecting a shipment of 86,000 next week, according to Persichilli.
In the first batch, about 20,000 doses were going to long-term care facilities and the remaining doses to hospitals. To start, New Jersey hospitals will be the only point of dispensing the vaccine. Fifty-three acute care hospitals would get the Pfizer vaccines this week.
Next week, if the Moderna vaccine is cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, it would get sent to the remaining 18 New Jersey hospitals. Persichilli said the first shipment of Moderna vaccine could include 154,000 doses with 65,000 more in the second batch.
Because the Moderna vaccine does not require the extreme cold storage like the Pfizer vaccine, there is more flexibility on the types of sites that can have it, she said. This week, New Jersey officials would be finalizing the distribution of the Moderna vaccines.
The first doses would go to the 18 remaining hospitals and then to the community-based providers.
Dr. Persichilli said the focus in “phase 1A” of the vaccinations continues to be health care personnel who have potential for direct or indirect exposure to patients or infectious materials.
That also will include long-term care facilities’ residents and staff.
The long-term care vaccinations will be carried out through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pharmacy partnership that includes CVS and Walgreens pharmacies.
She said Tuesday would be a “moment in history when the first vaccine’s administered in our state.”
She added that residents can be optimistic, “but we have a tough winter ahead of us.”
The governor said the reason health care workers are getting vaccinated first is because they have been under an enormous strain and there isn’t the capacity to bring workers in from other states – as was done in the spring – because COVID-19 is causing problems throughout the United States.
Under questions later in the press conference, the governor said first responders would not be required to get the COVID-19 vaccinations, “but we want them to come to it of their own free will.”
Both he and Persichilli kept repeating that scientists and medical personnel have vouched for the safety of the vaccine.
Restrictions
Asked why New Jersey isn’t shutting down its restaurants as has been done in neighboring Pennsylvania, Murphy said this state hasn’t seen a substantial spread of the coronavirus related to restaurants, which continue to operate at a 25 percent capacity.
The governor said he did not expect the state to lift the 10 p.m. curfew on in-person dining in restaurants for New Year’s Eve given the trend in new cases.
National toll
By Dec. 14 in the United States, according to the CDC, COVID-19 had exacted a death toll of more than 300,000 with cases of the coronavirus at 16,113,148.
Worldwide, there have been roughly 72.6 million cases and 1.62 million deaths from COVID-19.
