Union County COVID Vaccine Appointments Begin Tuesday

Caren Lissner
Updated ·3 min read

UNION COUNTY, NJ — Union County announced that it will begin taking appointments Tuesday for those who want to receive coronavirus vaccines, starting first with health care workers.

The vaccines will be administered to these workers starting Thursday.

The county said that eligible health care personnel, as defined by the New Jersey Department of Health, can make an appointment through the County’s registration webpage, http://www.ucnj.org/vaccination.

The site will start with "phase 1A" workers, which include doctors, nurses, dentists, EMT's, their office staffs, mortuary workers, and similar workers.

The state is vaccinating residents in phases. The phases are:

Phase 1A- Healthcare workers and long-term care facilities
Phase 1B- Other essential workers
Phase 1C- Adults 65 and over and those with underlying medical conditions
Phase 2- General public

(Also on Monday, Summit Medical Group began vaccinating its patients who work in health care and are 18 and up. Read more: Summit Medical Group Begins Vaccinating Health Workers)

'In the coming weeks and months ...'

Union County's sites will be offering the Moderna vaccine.

The Moderna vaccine is a Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, 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).

“In the coming weeks and months, as more supplies become available, we will announce locations and procedures in accordance with New Jersey Department of Health regulations and guidance,” said County Commissioner Chairman Alexander Mirabella. “We hold the health and safety of those we vaccinate in the utmost regard, and we are ensuring that all protocols are in place as we proceed."

He added, "As we conduct this lifesaving work over the coming months, we urge all residents to continue taking every possible action to save lives, too: wear a mask, observe social distance, get tested – and get vaccinated once you are eligible and once supplies arrive."

As New Jersey rolls out its coronavirus vaccination plan, the state has listed the following locations in Union County for health care workers to get the vaccine:

  • City of Elizabeth Health Department (418 Palmer St.)

  • ShopRite Pharmacy of Clark (76 Central Ave.)

  • ShopRite Pharmacy of Elizabeth (865 West Grand St.)

The full list of vaccination sites for health care workers throughout New Jersey can be found here.

Read more: When Can You Get COVID-19 Vaccine In New Jersey?

State trends

The state is currently in the second wave of the virus.

Just before Christmas, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said that there were 111 fatalities among residents from Tuesday to Wednesday, the highest one-day toll since July. The state also marked a seven-month record-high in terms of total coronavirus hospitalizations, with 3,841 new hospitalizations (3,612 who had tested positive and 279 who were awaiting their test results).

A total of 765 patients were in ICU beds and 485 patients were on ventilators.

On Dec. 22, 426 patients were discharged from hospitals, and 498 new patients were admitted.

As of Sunday night, 353,000 Americans had died of the virus. (You can see which states had the highest death toll in the past week on this CDC map.)

More information about Covid-19 vaccination is available at the New Jersey Department of Health’s website at nj.gov/health and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s website at cdc.gov.

Got news? Email caren.lissner@patch.com. Got photos? Please include express written permission from the photographer for us to use them.

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This article originally appeared on the Westfield Patch