Westfield Partners With Groups To Get Vaccines To Residents

WESTFIELD, NJ – The Town of Westfield has partnered with several community organizations in an effort to help ensure "COVID-19 vaccine equity for underserved populations," Mayor Shelley Brindle said in an update on Tuesday.

The outreach included a Zoom forum at 11 a.m. Thursday, April 1 meant to debunk rumors and give facts about the vaccines. It took place at 11 a.m. (find out more here).

Also, last Saturday, the Westfield Neighborhood Council and the New Jersey Black Women Physicians Association (NJBWPA) held two drive-through vaccine registration events, with the purpose of assisting those who are in need of vaccination appointments.

With support from members of the Town Council, the Westfield Community Center, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Association of Westfield, Lifelong Westfield, the Westfield Police Department, and numerous other volunteers, "this collective effort resulted in 350 successful vaccination registrations for vulnerable community members in need of securing appointments," the mayor said.

“NJBWPA partners with communities or neighborhoods in order to educate and improve the racial disparity that exists regarding vaccine access while carrying the burden of the disease and deaths,” said Westfield resident and NJBWPA Vice President Pamela Brug. “This partnership was a town-wide effort of various organizations including non-profit, religious, town officials and departments, along with numerous volunteers, all with a goal of reaching the most vulnerable populations in town — whether elderly or not — with the tools to register for the vaccine.”

In addition, the group was able to assist in identifying eligible individuals for a pop-up vaccination clinic held on Friday, March 26 at Town Hall, where 200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine were provided by Union County for those most in need.

Vulnerable Populations Outreach Committee

The Westfield Regional Health Department now has a Vulnerable Populations Outreach Committee, led by Ellen Shelley, which has been tasked with leveraging community partnerships to reach underserved populations as the vaccination process accelerates.

“I am incredibly proud of the efforts of this group to ensure that vaccination equity is a reality in Westfield,” said Brindle. “The dedication demonstrated by this team in reaching out to our most vulnerable residents is a true reflection of how our community continues to help one another during the pandemic. I am very grateful to all those who volunteered, and to the Union County Board of Commissioners for providing doses of the vaccine specifically intended for these purposes.”

“The work being done on the Vulnerable Populations Outreach Committee will ensure that our community members who are most at risk are able to secure COVID-19 information, testing and vaccination,” said Megan Avallone, Director, Westfield Regional Health Department.

Local volunteers can help you get a shot, including for homebound seniors

Seniors who have not been able to secure a vaccination appointment can contact Gen2Gen, a group of Westfield High School volunteers who have been working to assist with making appointments online.

By filling out the registration form at http://bit.ly/Gen2Gen-vaccines, seniors can be notified of appointments that meet their needs as availability permits. Any residents that are homebound can call the Health Department at 908-789-4070 to receive more information about the homebound COVID-19 vaccination program.

To find a list of places, including stores and pharmacies, offering the vaccine in Union County, and other information, click on Patch's updated list of where to get a coronavirus vaccine in Union County.

1,895 still hospitalized in NJ

The state of New Jersey reported last week that 1,895 people are still hospitalized with the virus, 407 of those in critical care, and 57 percent of those on ventilators. 38 more fatalities were reported since the day before, bringing the state's confirmed deaths to 21,530.

While the daily fatality rate is starting to drop again, it's not at the level it was six months ago, before the second wave in New Jersey when there were a total of only two coronavirus fatalities reported statewide from Sept. 7 to Sept. 8.

On April 30, 2020, the one-day death toll in New Jersey reached an all-time high of 460 residents in 24 hours.

As of Friday, across the country, approximately 548,000 Americans had died of the virus. (You can see which states had the highest death toll in the past week on this CDC map.)

Testing and vaccines

For more information and updates on all Union County services during the COVID-19 outbreak, including the Drive-Through Test Center at Kean University, the Mobile Test Unit walk-up sites, vaccination information, emergency food distribution and other support services, visit ucnj.org/covid19.

Click here to see when you'll be eligible for the coronavirus vaccine in New Jersey (and a new group becoming eligible March 29).

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.

More information about the vaccines

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, including the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, are newer 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 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.

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