Westfield Mayor: We're Working On Local Covid-19 Vaccination Site

WESTFIELD, NJ — It's been difficult for eligible people to get coronavirus vaccine appointments in Union County, noted Westfield Mayor Shelley Brindle at the Township Council meeting on Tuesday night — but she's going to do something about it.

"I continue to receive questions from frustrated residents about the vaccination rate in Union County," said Brindle, who recently announced a rate of 9.6 percent vaccinated countywide. "The reality is that the surrounding counties have larger and more vaccination sites. For example, Morris and Middlesex have the mega sites and Essex has four county-sponsored sites. The state did not approve a mega site in Union County."

But, according to Brindle, help is on the way.

"We have applied to be a local vaccine provider but the application is still on hold pending an increase in supply," she said Tuesday. "We are, however, moving forward with logistical planning for a site in Westfield so we can start vaccinating as soon as there is supply available to us."

Brindle explained, "Our local Health Department has let the county know that we are willing and eager to do whatever we can to partner with them to get shots into arms."

Patch has been publishing its list of public sites each week (see our updated Union County list here). In addition, certain medical practices, hospital networks, and some pharmacy chains (including these two Union County CVS stores) have opened up appointments.

But when one of the public sites in Union County opened up appointments on a recent Sunday, they were gobbled up quickly.

Earlier this week, Patch reported that teens and young people in Union County have started volunteering to use their tech skills to get elderly residents a shot. READ MORE: Westfield Teen's New Group Finds Coronavirus Vaccines For Seniors

And several weeks ago, Atlantic Health opened a vaccination site in Summit. READ MORE: New Coronavirus Vaccination Center To Open In Summit.

Seniors can call this number in Union County 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.

Some in New Jersey have been helped by social media groups, like New Jersey Covid Vaccine Info on Facebook, which has 67,000 members.

Brindle may ask for volunteers

Brindle said, "In addition, I am thrilled to see the resourcefulness and community-oriented mindset of some resident volunteers come together in an effort to coordinate a plan to assist Westfield’s most vulnerable residents in obtaining vaccination appointments and securing transportation."

She noted, "Representatives from Lifelong Westfield, the MLK Jr. Association of Westfield, the Westfield Community Center, the Westfield Neighborhood Council, and Police Chief Battiloro met today with our Health Department’s Vulnerable Populations Coordinator to see how we can [help] ... we may be asking for additional community volunteers for assistance in securing vaccination appointments."

'Unimaginable' number of deaths

Brindle noted Tuesday that more than 500,000 Americans have died from the virus, "a truly unimaginable number," she said.

"In under a year," she noted, "we lost about the same number of Americans to this virus as to those killed in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam combined. I hope we all can honor the memories of those who died by continuing to do what is necessary to drive these numbers down even further as we await additional vaccines."

Brindle said that New Jersey has administered 1,713,580 doses to date.

While the death toll in New Jersey is declining again, deaths and hospitalizations have not decreased to the level of Sept. 7, when there were only two deaths reported statewide in 24 hours.

On Wednesday, the state reported 57 new confirmed deaths from the virus in 24 hours, and 2,070 people battling the virus in hospitals.

The state has confirmed 55 cases in New Jersey of the UK variant of the virus.

More information: Johnson & Johnson and more

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 if you qualify by clicking this link.

People can register for an appointment on the state's hub for any of the state's six megasites, besides checking the other websites listed above.

Two types of vaccines are presently offered, and more are on the way:

• Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, including the 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 FDA may announce by Friday whether they will recommend a new one-shot vaccine developed Johnson and Johnson, which could be available in late March and uses more traditional technology. Read more about how it compares to the other vaccines by clicking here and here. Having the majority of the public vaccinated, no matter which vaccine, will also lessen the spread.

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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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