Union County Covid-19 Vaccine Updates: New Groups Eligible

This story was updated at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, March 26.

UNION COUNTY, NJ — With more people becoming eligible for the coronavirus vaccine in New Jersey as of March 29 and April 5, more people are looking for appointments statewide. Below are links to places to get one in the county, and volunteers who will help you find one.

The state notes, "Beginning March 29, additional essential front line workers will be eligible to book vaccine appointments. Beginning April 5, individuals aged 55 and over, additional essential workers, and individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities 16 and over, detailed below, will be eligible to book appointments." (More here.)

Besides registering for an appointment on the state's hub for any of the state's six megasites, the state has been updating its list of Union County sites (see this week's updated list below).

In addition to those county sites and medical offices, chains like CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Sam's Club, Rite Aid, Stop and Shop, and ShopRite have been offering the shot. It's worth checking the sites early in the morning:

• Walgreens: https://www.walgreens.com/topic/promotion/covid-vaccine.jsp
• CVS: https://www.cvs.com/immunizations/covid-19-vaccine
• Rite Aid: https://www.riteaid.com/covid-19

In February, Atlantic Health opened a vaccination site in Summit (See: New Coronavirus Vaccination Center To Open In Summit).

Seniors in Union County can call this number if they have no computer access: 908-613-7829, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 to 1 on Saturday.

Other vaccine help:

• Some in New Jersey have been helped to find an appointment through social media groups, like New Jersey Covid Vaccine Info on Facebook, which has 67,000 members.
• Young people in North Jersey have started volunteering to use their tech skills to get elderly residents a shot. READ MORE: Teen's New Group Finds Coronavirus Vaccines For Seniors

More information about the vaccines

Find out if you're eligible now in NJ by clicking this link.

• Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, including the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, are 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). The one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine is more traditional (see stories about all three vaccines here and here.) Doctors say that the important metric is that all three are effective in preventing serious illness and death from covid — and that having the majority of the public vaccinated, no matter which vaccine, will lessen the spread.
• As of this weekend, 543,000 Americans had died of the virus. (You can see which states had the highest death toll in the past week on this CDC map.)

Here are the currently listed public vaccine sites in Union County.

Most of these sites are currently only vaccinating people 18 and up, so double check before heading over.

Acme Pharmacy #1096

Kenilworth
Union
18 years
mhealthappointments.com/covidappt

CVS Pharmacy

Elizabeth
18 years
(800) 746-7287
cvs.com/immunizations/covid-19-vaccine

CVS Pharmacy
Union
(800) 746-7287
cvs.com/immunizations/covid-19-vaccine
City of Elizabeth Health Department

418 Palmer St.
Elizabeth NJ, 07202
(908) 820-4250
Pre-register at https://covidvaccine.nj.gov/

Neighborhood Health Services - Plainfield

1700 Myrtle Avenue Plainfield
(908) 540-0229
nhscnj.org

Overlook Medical Center
99 Beauvoir Summit
Union
18 years
atlantichealth.org/

Rahway Health Department

1 City Hall Plaza Rahway
(732) 827-2000
cityofrahway.org

Riverside Medical Group Urgent Care Center Springfield
200 US Highway 22 Springfield
(973) 376-4341
riversidemedgroup.com

Robert Wood Johnson - Rahway
865 Stone Street Rahway
(732) 381-4200
rwjbh.org/covid19vaccine

ShopRite Pharmacy #159
Hillside
Union
18 years
vaccines.shoprite.com

ShopRite Pharmacy #163
76 Cenral Avenue
Clark
Union
18 years
vaccines.shoprite.com

ShopRite Pharmacy #164
Linden
Union
18 years
vaccines.shoprite.com

ShopRite Pharmacy #262
Union
Union
18 years
vaccines.shoprite.com

ShopRite Pharmacy Of Elizabeth
865 West Grand Street
Elizabeth
Union
18 years
vaccines.shoprite.com

Stop and Shop Pharmacy #0822
Elizabeth
Union
18 years
stopandshopsched.rxtouch.com/rbssched/program/covid19/Patient/Advisory

Trinitas Regional Medical Center
Thomas Dunn Sports Center 600 Pearl Street
Elizabeth
Union
18 years
(908) 994-8166

Union County - Kean University

1000 Morris Avenue Union, NJ 07083
ucnj.org/covid19/covid-19-vaccination/

Other information

• Here is the link you can use any time to see the updated list of people eligible in New Jersey.

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Here are statewide coronavirus resources:

• NJ COVID-19 Information Hub: https://covid19.nj.gov/
• General COVID-19 questions: 2-1-1
• NJ COVID-19 hotline: (800) 222-1222

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