NJ Lagging Behind In Vaccine Goal: See Latest Data

NEW JERSEY — New Jersey officials have set a goal to vaccinate 70 percent of the state's adults against COVID-19 in six months. Although it has recently increased the rate of daily inoculations, the state still has to make up ground to get on track for its six-month goal.

Seventy percent of the Garden State's adult population equals 4.7 million people, according to the New Jersey Department of Health. New Jersey has so far administered the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which each require two doses per person.

So how is New Jersey doing in getting to its goal?

Patch graphed out where New Jersey stands in meeting its objective in vaccinating that many people.

Data as of 4 p.m. March 4. Check back for updates:

Explaining the Numbers

New Jersey administered its first COVID-19 vaccines Dec. 15. State health officials don't have a precise date for its six-month goal, so Patch will use June 15 as an end-marker.

Officials have reported 2,257,726 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in New Jersey as of noon Tuesday. As of that time, eligible New Jerseyans — and much of the world — have only been able to receive vaccines that require two doses each.

New Jersey would need to administer 9.4 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to meet its six-month goal. The orange line in the graph represents the pace of vaccinations necessary for New Jersey to obtain that goal.

Inoculating 70 percent of New Jersey's adults in six months would require health professionals around the state to administer about 51,000 shots per day. New Jersey never exceeded that daily total until Feb. 3 but did so 13 times in February.

In terms of total doses administered, New Jersey is 24.02 percent of the way toward its six-month goal. However, only 721,131 have received their second dose. So New Jersey would need about 4 million more adults fully inoculated by mid-June to reach its objective.

President Joe Biden also expects the United States to have enough vaccines for every adult by the end of May, he said Tuesday. President Biden's optimism stems from a deal between Johnson & Johnson and pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. to ramp up vaccine production.

It's not immediately clear how this development will affect New Jersey's ultimate six-month goal.

One-Dose Vaccines

The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization Saturday for the COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, which only require one shot per patient.

Gov. Phil Murphy expects New Jersey to receive 73,600 Johnson & Johnson vaccines this week, but he doesn't have a clear picture beyond that. Once state officials begin logging statistics of one-dose vaccines administered, that may change the process of measuring the state's progress.

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"We do not have any clarity on what the next couple of weeks may look like in terms of J&J. supplies," Murphy said. "As we know, J&J is currently ramping up production. We are being as conservative as possible in not calculating for anything else beyond this initial 70,000-plus dose haul until we are told otherwise."

The option of a one-dose vaccine means New Jersey won't have to administer 9.4 million vaccinations to meet its goal. And that could help the state make up where it lost ground in the early months of vaccinations.

On Monday, Murphy announced New Jersey would expand its vaccine eligibility to more groups over the next month.

Beginning March 15, the following will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine:

• Educators, including support staff, in pre-K through 12th grade settings
• Childcare workers in licensed and registered settings
• Public and local transportation workers, including bus, taxi, rideshare, and airport employees; NJ TRANSIT workers; and Motor Vehicle Commission staff
• Public safety workers who are not sworn law enforcement or fire professionals, including probation officers and fire safety inspectors
• Migrant farm workers
• Members of tribal communities
• Individuals experiencing homelessness and those living in shelters, including domestic violence shelters

Here's who else can qualify for vaccination starting March 29:

• Food production, agriculture and food distribution (including grocery store and restaurant workers)
• Eldercare and support
• Warehousing and logistics
• Social services support staff
• Elections personnel
• Hospitality
• Medical supply chain
• Postal and shipping services
• Clergy
• Judicial system

Where New Jersey Stands

When compared to all U.S. states, New Jersey is in the middle of the pack as far as its pace of vaccinations.

Nationally, 15.3 percent of Americans have received at least one vaccine dose, while 7.7 percent got both shots, according to NPR. In New Jersey, 15.7 percent have been inoculated once while 7.8 percent have received both shots.

The Garden State ranks 26th among states with 15.7 percent of people getting at least one shot. Alaska tops the rankings at 22.9 percent, while Georgia is in last at 12.1 percent.

New Jersey places 29th in terms of the percentage of its population with both vaccine doses. Alaska again leads the list with 13.7 percent, while Utah places last at 5.5 percent.