By Allison Perrine
According to Gov. Phil Murphy, over 1 million people had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Feb. 7, 2021.
NEW JERSEY – Over 1 million New Jerseyans have now been vaccinated in the fight against COVID-19, Gov. Phil Murphy announced this week.
During a routine press conference, Murphy said Wednesday that 1,138,757 vaccinations have been administered statewide; 875,424 were first doses and the remaining 263,196 were second doses. That’s a step forward not only for the number of residents vac- cinated but also the rate in which the doses have been administered, he said.
“When we administered our first vaccine on Dec. 15, it took us 29 days to get to a quarter-of-a-million administered. It then took another 10 days for us to get to 500,000,” he said. “It’s only taken us 16 days to go from 500,000 to 1 million. Even with the continued scarcity in supply and the rescheduling caused by snowstorms, we have put 500,000 vaccine doses in arms in just a little over two weeks.”
However, there’s still “a good ways to go” before the state reaches its goal of vaccinating 4.7 million adults by the beginning of the summer, Murphy said. The state needs a “much greater supply” to get there and to get the vaccination infrastructure necessary to expand the state’s efforts. Currently, the six mega sites statewide are able to vaccinate between 10,000 and 15,000 people daily.
“This is a great barrier we have crossed but we are not resting on any laurels here,” Murphy said. “We’re going to keep at it until we reach our goal and we are going to do our part to meet President Biden’s nationwide goal of 150 million vaccinations in his first 100 days.”
And as of Thursday and Friday this week, both CVS Pharmacy and Rite Aid will receive direct shipments of vaccines available by appointment at New Jersey locations. Through this federal pharmacy partnership, Murphy said CVS will receive about 19,900 doses and Rite Aid will receive about 7,500.
As of Wednesday, Feb. 10, there have been 653,955 total positive PCR tests in New Jersey and 78,719 positive antigen rapid tests. The COVID-19 daily positivity rate reached 12.16 percent as of Saturday, Feb. 6. Hospitals statewide reported 383 patients had been discharged from their facilities while 307 were admitted; there were 49 new in-hospital deaths. That brings the death toll to 20,004 since March.
In the Two River area specifically, the cumulative positive COVID-19 cases include Atlantic Highlands, 233; Colts Neck, 722; Fair Haven, 319; Highlands, 254; Holmdel, 1,117; Little Silver, 422; Middletown, 4,298; Monmouth Beach, 230; Oceanport, 425; Red Bank, 1,375; Rumson, 457; Sea Bright, 104; Shrewsbury Borough, 417; and Tinton Falls, 1,267.
During Wednesday’s press conference Murphy also reviewed the narrowing digital divide in the state for children who do not have access to either devices, connectivity or both, to successfully learn remotely. On Jan. 6, there were 597 students who needed both a device and connectivity, 5,980 who needed only a device and 1,140 who needed only connectivity – totaling 7,717. As of Feb. 3, those numbers dropped dramatically with only 15 students needing both a device and connectivity, 53 only needing a device and 127 only needing connectivity, a total of 195 students from nine districts; 85 of the 195 are from Sussex County.
“We’re getting very close to having the digital divide 100 percent closed,” said Murphy. “And believe me, we won’t be happy until that 195 gets to zero.”
This article originally appeared in the Feb. 11, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
