Morristown Medical Center To Begin Giving COVID Vaccines Tuesday

MORRISTOWN, NJ — Morristown Medical Center will share in New Jersey's historic day. The hospital will begin distributing the coronavirus vaccine to staff at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Morristown Medical Center was among several hospitals New Jersey chose to receive the initial shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech. Atlantic Health Systems — the hospital's parent company — expects to vaccinations to begin at their other medical centers once they receive doses.

It wasn't immediately clear who or how many people would receive the vaccine at Morristown Medical Center. More information should become available later Tuesday.

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Coronavirus vaccines are in limited supply at the moment. The state of New Jersey has 76,050 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to give in the first round. By the end of the week, vaccines should be available at an additional 47 acute care hospitals that can manage the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires ultra-cold chain storage.

While acute care hospitals will be the only points of dispensing during the first week of vaccine availability, the network will expand to additional sites like federally qualified health centers, local health departments, county sites, urgent care clinics, and pharmacies in December, pending vaccine availability, the governor's office said.

Officials gave out the state's first round of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech to health care workers at University Hospital in Newark. Gov. Phil Murphy was among the officials and health care workers present at what he called a "momentous" landmark in the state's battle against the virus. Read more: First COVID-19 Vaccines In NJ Bring Hope To Embattled Hospital

Related article: Morristown Medical Confident In Bed Capacity If COVID Surges More

With reporting from Eric Kiefer/Patch

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