Hudson County Gets 1,500 Doses Of Johnson & Johnson Vaccine

HUDSON COUNTY, NJ — Hudson County’s main coronavirus vaccination site in Kearny will be able to administer more shots this week, as the county has received 1,500 doses of the new Johnson and Johnson vaccine to administer and distribute, a county spokesperson said Wednesday.

In addition, local hospitals and a new FEMA-run program in Jersey City will also get more vaccines this week and next week to continue the efforts to vaccinate vulnerable and senior populations.

And in a separate program, Christ Hospital received 400 Johnson and Johnson shots this week and began administering them Wednesday to address "those deemed to be part of the vulnerable population, those at risk for not returning for a second appointment, hospital clinics (neighborhood health centers), and other at risk population groups, African Americans and Hispanics," said a hospital representative.

A spokeswoman for Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise gave the following updates on the county's vaccination programs Wednesday:

• In partnership with Governor Phil Murphy and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, the county is helping to launch a new FEMA backed community vaccine distribution program in Jersey City next week that will operate out of local churches, targeted at underserved communities. It will operate both in the Bergen/Lafayette section of the city and in Jersey City Heights, which is up the hill from Hoboken. The program will begin on March 8 and will provide 3,000 first and second doses.
• Hudson County has been running a vaccination site in Kearny since December. For this week, they have focused signups on residents over age 75, although they are giving second doses to anyone who's gotten a first one there. They have already given out nearly 20,000 doses.
• Additionally, Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen has received 1,100 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to help vaccinate any Hudson County resident who is 75 years or older. Hudson County has shared a list of 2,600 seniors over 75 with the hospital who have registered online to be vaccinated but have not yet received a vaccine. Palisades Medical Center has been in contact with North Bergen and West New York officials to help senior residents schedule an appointment.

Hoboken City Hall announced late Wednesday that some appointments had just opened up for seniors 65 and over at the county site. Check here: http://www.hudso ncovidvax.org/

There are also municipal vaccination sites in towns like Hoboken and Jersey City, as well as hospitals and pharmacies administering the vaccines in Hudson County. See the Patch list of Hudson County vaccination sites and ways to find an appointment.

“As we have said for weeks, Hudson County has succeeded in building out our vaccine distribution capacity but we need more doses to ramp up our program to the level required to make sure our residents are safe,” said County Executive DeGise. “While we still need more vaccine supply, these latest developments will allow our county site and our municipal partners to expand our operations and give more of our residents these critical, life saving vaccines.”

“Jersey City’s vaccination program is expanding week by week with our second distribution site recently opening at Ferris High School, and this new FEMA site will be a great help in scaling our distribution up further,” said Mayor Steven Fulop. “I would like to thank Gov. Murphy and County Executive DeGise for their continuing assistance in protecting Jersey City residents.”

Vaccine information

• Presently, the state's sites are vaccinating people in the 1A and 1B groups, including certain essential workers, seniors over 65, and people 16-65 with chronic medical conditions. Find out who qualifies by clicking this link. Teachers and some other essential workers will become eligible mid-month.
• Some in New Jersey have been helped to find vaccine appointments via social media groups, like New Jersey Covid Vaccine Info on Facebook, which has 67,000 members.
• The state is expected to get 70,000 doses this week of the new Johnson and Johnson vaccine. Read more here.
• The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use messenger RNA (mRNA), a new type of vaccine that doesn't include the weakened virus, but teaches human cells to make a protein that triggers the immune response (read more about that here). Johnson & Johnson's vaccine is more traditional.
• As of Wednesday, more than 518,000 Americans have died of the virus. (You can see which states had the highest death toll in the past week on this CDC map.)

Got news? Email caren.lissner@patch.com. Got photos? Please include express written permission from the photographer for us to use them. To be the first to get free news alerts with breaking stories in your town, or to get a free local newsletter each morning, sign up for Patch breaking news alerts or daily newsletters.