Union County Vaccine Slots Fill Up Quickly, Frustrate Residents

Caren Lissner
Updated ·3 min read

UNION COUNTY, NJ – The county of Union announced Saturday night that it would allow people to schedule coronavirus vaccines starting at 11 a.m. Sunday — and in the blink of an eye they were gone.

"What a joke; I logged on at 11 a.m., the system was down or it 'timed out' and now (1:50 p.m.) you can get on and there are no appointments," wrote a woman in the comments on Patch. "So my 78-year-old mother with underlying health problems will have to take her chances. What a disgrace."

"State says no vaccines are available," said another woman. "Feels like The Hunger Games."

Sunday afternoon, the county wrote on its Facebook page, "UPDATE: We have filled up all our existing online appointments for this week for the COVID-19 vaccination. For those seeking vaccinations, we urge you to continue to go online regularly. As cancellations occur, we will also be adding appointments."

They added, "We will not open up appointments online for the following weeks until we know how many vaccines we will be receiving. Thanks for your patience."

Despite their patience, residents left more than 600 comments.

"I sat here for over an hour trying to get in," wrote a woman, "and within minutes all of the appointments were gone. I couldn't get one for my parents at all."

Sunday night, the county said that the following appointments were filled, although they might become available with cancellations:

  • Kean University, 1/26: 0 available/456

  • Plainfield High School, 1/27: 0/154

  • Kean University, 1/28: 0/300

  • Kean University, 1/29: 0/300

Click here to see the currently listed public vaccines sites in Union County, including in Westfield, Union, Plainfield, and more.

The state has said they are trying to get more vaccines from the federal government.

At first, the state began vaccinating Phase 1A: 650,000 health care workers, staffs, and residents of long-term care facilities. The state expanded eligible people to police and firefighters, those over 65, and people 16-65 with certain health conditions. That's when it became harder to get appointments. Read more: NJ Expands COVID Vaccine To 65 & Older, Those With Medical Issues

State officials have said the goal is to vaccinate 70 percent of the adult population by the spring.

More information

Gov. Phil Murphy announced last week that New Jersey has created a county-by-county vaccine hub that reports the number of immunizations across the state.

Here is a link to see the updated list of people eligible in New Jersey.

As of Sunday, more than 419,000 Americans had died of the virus. (You can see which states had the highest death toll in the past week on this CDC map.)

Here are statewide coronavirus resources:

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This article originally appeared on the Westfield Patch