All N.J. residents age 16 and over will be eligible for COVID vaccine beginning April 19, Murphy announces – NJ.com

All New Jersey residents age 16 and over will be eligible to make an appointment for the coronavirus vaccine beginning on April 19, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday.

The news means people will be eligible two weeks ahead of when Murphy originally planned to make vaccines available to every New Jerseyan. The governor said he’s still confident that 70% of the state’s eligible population — some 4.7 million people — will be vaccinated within six months of when the first dose was administered in mid-December.

“Yes, we still have roughly three million people to go to meet our initial goal,” Murphy said during his regular COVID-19 briefing.

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There are currently 1,796,798 fully vaccinated people in the state, Murphy said. That’s about 38% of the goal to have the 4.7 million vaccinated by June 30.

He’s optimistic about reaching the goal based on the increased number of doses being sent to New Jersey by the federal government.

“Two months ago, on Feb. 5, we reported roughly 180,000 fully vaccinated individuals. One month later, on March 5, we reported 789,500. Or, nearly 610,000 in one month,” Murphy said.

“Over the past month, more than 1 million people have received their second dose of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, or their single shot from Johnson & Johnson, and are now fully vaccinated,” he said.

The news comes as New Jersey is being hit with a third wave of new cases of the virus.

Murphy announced 2,984 cases on Monday and an additional 15 deaths. The state’s seven-day average for newly confirmed cases is 3,918, up 7% from a week ago and 44% from a month ago.

In all, New Jersey has now reported 817,464 coronavirus cases out of more than 12.2 million PCR tests in the nearly 112,562 months since the state reported its first case on March 4, 2020. There have also been 513 positive antigen tests, including 513 reported Monday. Those cases are considered probable, and health officials have warned that positive antigen tests could overlap with the confirmed PCR tests because they are sometimes given in tandem.

The state of 9.2 million people has reported 24,649 residents have died from complications related to COVID-19 — 22,081 confirmed deaths and 2,568 fatalities considered probable.

More New Jerseyans became eligible for the vaccine on Monday.

The latest group of people eligible are:

  • People ages 55-64
  • People ages 16 and up with intellectual and developmental disabilities
  • Educators, including support staff, in higher education settings
  • Communications infrastructure support, including engineers, and technicians, and members of the press
  • Real estate, building, and home service workers, including construction workers, code officials, plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians, property management, and maintenance workers
  • Retail financial institution workers, including bank tellers, lending services, public accounting, and check-cashing workers
  • Sanitation workers providing disinfection and janitorial services, city sanitation workers; residential, commercial, and industrial solid and hazardous waste removal workers
  • Laundry service workers, including those working in laundromats, laundry services, and dry cleaners
  • Utility workers including, electrical generation and supply system, natural gas delivery, nuclear power plant, water supply, telephone, cable/fiber/optical/broadband/cellular service workers
  • Librarians and support staff at municipal, county and state libraries.

Murphy announced two big expansions in vaccine eligibility last month.

They included:

  • Food production, agriculture and food distribution
  • Eldercare and support
  • Warehousing and logistics
  • Social services support staff
  • Elections personnel
  • Hospitality
  • Medical supply chain
  • Postal and shipping services
  • Clergy
  • Judicial system

The list of those who were previously eligible includes:

  • Health care workers
  • People who live and work at long-term care and high-risk congregate facilities
  • First responders
  • People 65 and older
  • Motor Vehicle Commission workers
  • NJ Transit workers and other transportation workers
  • Public and local transportation workers, including bus, taxi, ride-share and airport employees
  • All public safety personal who have not already been made eligible such as probation officers, child protective service workers and probation officers.
  • Members of tribal communities
  • Migrant farm workers
  • People who are homeless and people living in homeless shelters or domestic violence shelters
  • People 16 to 64 who have certain medical conditions

Those medical conditions include:

  • Cancer
  • Chronic kidney disease
  • COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
  • Down Syndrome
  • Heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies
  • Overweight or obesity (BMI of 25 or higher)
  • Sickle cell disease
  • Smoking
  • Type 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus
  • Asthma (moderate-to-severe)
  • Cerebrovascular disease (affects blood vessels and blood supply to the brain)
  • Cystic fibrosis
  • Hypertension or high blood pressure
  • Neurologic conditions, such as dementia
  • Liver disease
  • Pulmonary fibrosis (having damaged or scarred lung tissues)
  • Thalassemia (a type of blood disorder)

Note: Individuals who are pregnant and those in an immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant, blood or bone marrow transplant, immune deficiencies, HIV, use of corticosteroids, or use of other immune weakening medicines are also eligible but should follow CDC guidance and first discuss vaccination with their medical provider before receiving the vaccine.

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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com.