Vaccine Tent To Go Up At Sandy Hook Over Memorial Day Weekend

HIGHLANDS, NJ — When you visit New Jersey beaches this Memorial Day weekend, coronavirus and vaccines may be the furthest thing from your mind.

Until you see the vaccine tent set up in the dunes at Sandy Hook, that is.

That's right: Monmouth County and the National Park Service teamed up to operate a free vaccine tent at Sandy Hook. The vaccine tent will set up Saturday and Sunday, May 29 and 30, and it will be located at parking lot E inside the park.

Two more tents will be erected this weekend, one at Pier Village in Long Branch and another inside the Asbury Park Convention Hall, said Monmouth County Commissioner Sue Kiley. She said the county specifically targeted these three popular tourism spots to help New Jersey boost its vaccination rates; Gov. Murphy's deadline of vaccinating 70 percent of the adult population by July 4 is fast approaching.

As of Tuesday, 3.9 million New Jersey residents are fully vaccinated, and 4.8 million people have at gotten at least one dose. There are about 8.8 million residents in New Jersey.

All three tents will be open Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Sandy Hook tent is a drive-through tent; you will not even have to get out of your car, said a Monmouth County spokeswoman.

The Pier Village tent and tent in the Asbury Park Convention Hall are walk-ups.

At all three, nurses will be giving out the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine, which requires two shots.

All the tents are walk-ins, with no appointment needed. However, teens ages 12-18 must have a legal guardian present when they receive the Pfizer vaccine.

The vaccines will actually be provided and administered by the Visiting Nurses Association of Central Jersey.

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