Secaucus Opens Town Coronavirus Vaccine Site; First Shots Given

SECAUCUS, NJ — History was made Wednesday morning in Secaucus, when the town's POD site started giving out its first coronavirus vaccine injections.

New Jersey's vaccine portal is also now live; you can register here to get the vaccine: https://covid19.nj.gov/pages/v...

POD stands for point-of-distribution; the Secaucus POD is a heated tent and trailer located next to the town Rec Center. Secaucus is one of the first towns in the state to open its own vaccine center; North Bergen started giving out shots at its municipal vaccine center on Christmas Eve.*

The Hudson County-run site, the USS Juneau in Kearny, is also currently operational, and Essex County just opened its site Wednesday, as well. Riverside Medical Group is running a vaccine distribution site in Hoboken.

"We felt the decision to operate a local POD will better serve our community," said Secaucus Mayor Mike Gonnelli of the decision to open a town-run site. "We just hope everyone takes the vaccine."

"The mayor said he wanted a town site for residents and the Secaucus Police Department made it happen," said Secaucus Police Chief Dennis Miller.

Wednesday was a "soft launch" for the POD and vaccines were given to about 10 people who volunteered to go first, a collection of town EMTs, local nurses and Secaucus police officers who are either certified EMTs or will be supervising the vaccine site. Chief Miller was the very first person to get the shot.

"There is nothing to be scared of," said the police chief, seconds after he was given the injection by Secacucus High School nurse Kathy Gerbasio, who herself got the vaccine last week at the USS Juneau.

The Secaucus POD will use the Moderna vaccine, which requires two injections, the second one 28 days after the first shot. So Chief Miller and everyone vaccinated today will have to return in 28 days for their second shot. That vaccine does not have to be kept quite as cold as the Pfizer vaccine; it is stored in coolers inside the trailer, which must be kept at -13 to five degrees Fahrenheit.

Secaucus opened its POD vaccine site in partnership with the towns of North Bergen, Union City, Weehawken and Harrison, said Janet Castro, the shared health director for those five towns. The towns applied for and received a $150,000 state grant, which paid for the tent and the staff and nurses to run it and administer the vaccines. The North Bergen and Harrison PODs will open very shortly, possibly even later today or Thursday, she said.

Castro encouraged people to get the vaccine when it is their turn.

"The only way we will eliminate this virus is a global vaccine effort," she said. "And even then the virus may not completely go away. It may still be around, like the flu. But we need people to get the vaccine. And right now, not enough people trust the science."

Here is how the process will work to get the vaccine: An online portal will soon be made available for Secaucus residents to sign up. The town of Secaucus is waiting for that portal to be completed by the state Dept. of Health; it links to the New Jersey immunization registry, so that is why the state has to create the portal.

Once the portal is ready to go, it will be made public to Secaucus residents. You can still only sign up in the order mandated by the state: 1a is healthcare workers and long-term care residents. 1b is front-line essential workers and people 75 and older. 1c is people ages 65-74, those 18-64 with high-risk conditions and all other essential workers. The last group of people to get the vaccine will be all other American adults older than 18; they will likely not get the vaccine until late spring or summer. Children will not be getting the vaccine.

The Secaucus POD has the capacity to give out 150 to 200 vaccines a day, said Castro. The POD is meant to be for Secaucus residents and those who work in Secaucus. After you sign up online, you will be given a date to come to the POD for your shot.

On your scheduled day, park at the Rec Center and present your ID at the sign-up inside the tent. Then people will wait in their cars until it is their turn to go into the trailer for the vaccine.

After their shot, people are required to sit inside the (heated) tent for 15 minutes to make sure they do not have any reactions. A trained EMT will be watching them. The site has epinephrine pens, Benadryl and even defibrillators on hand in case there is a reaction. (Some people have reported allergic reactions after getting the vaccine.) Those who have a known history of allergies or anaphylactic shock should sit for 30 total minutes, said Jennie Haemmerle, the public nurse for the town of North Bergen, who was also there Wednesday.

You will then be given a card that verifies you got the first vaccine and an appointment date to come back in 28 days for the second shot.

Castro said she and her team already have a "decent" amount of the Moderna vaccine on hand. They just cannot give the shots out until that portal is launched by the state. The vaccines are kept in a secure cold-storage facility in North Bergen, and will be brought daily to the Secaucus POD site, to match the number of people who are scheduled to get the shot that day. The vaccines are kept in a cooler.

The Secaucus POD is an example of what can happen when local government works together, said those on site Wednesday.

"It's beautiful, really," said North Bergen nurse Haemmerle. "It's beautiful to see all the towns come together to find a solution, and this is what Hudson County has done since the beginning, since March. This is about helping the people."

"I really want to thank Mike McCabe of McCabe Ambulance; he made the whole thing happen," said Chief Miller. "And the Planning, Intelligence and Special Events unit, and traffic division, of the Secaucus police department. The mayor wanted this, and our guys accomplished what he wanted."

"Thank you, President Trump for the vaccine," said Secaucus Police Capt. Joe Baccola, one of the officers who volunteered to get the vaccine first. He is referring to Trump's launch of Operation Warp Speed to accelerate vaccine development and approval.

Initial Patch report: Secaucus Getting Its Own Vaccine Distribution Site At Rec Center (Dec. 22)

Hoboken Opens Its Own Coronavirus Vaccination Site (Dec. 28)

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* We originally incorrectly reported that Secaucus was the first town in the state to open its vaccine site. That is incorrect. North Bergen was the first.