March 27, 2021- 10:13 p.m
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will open a community vaccination site in Newark on Monday capable of administering 42,000 COVID vaccines a week, Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday.
The site at the New Jersey Institute of Technology “will be a game-changer in reaching our vaccination goals,” the governor said in a tweet.
He expressed gratitude to President Joe Biden and to Jeff Zients, the coordinator of the White House COVID response.
The vaccine supply for FEMA-operated centers is “above and beyond” the state’s allocation. New Jersey expects to receive half a million doses next week, a 20% increase over this week but short of the “quantum leap” the governor had predicted.
FEMA’s nationwide program is “reaching deep into the communities with higher risks of virus exposure and infection,” Murphy said.
Sites are chosen based on an analysis of “social vulnerability” by the federal Centers for Disease Control. The Newark site, located with easy access to public transportation, will be one of the largest, capable of administering 6,000 shots a day.
Two other sites — in Boston and Norfolk, Virginia — were announced by the White House on Friday, for a total of 25 nationwide.
Nearly 3.8 million people in New Jersey have received at least one dose of COVID vaccine so far. Of those, 1.4 million are fully vaccinated, either with two doses of a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
New Jersey has the highest rate of new cases in the nation, and the rate of transmission of the virus has increased over the past week, along with hospitalizations.
After sharp declines in January and February, the number of COVID cases in New Jersey and nationally has begun to increase again.
Health officials are concerned that the spread of variants of the virus may lead to another surge in cases and deaths.
