header_fwtitle ) { $css_title .= 'font-weight:' . esc_attr( $pheader_fwtitle ) . ';'; } if ( $pheader_title_color ) { $css_title .= 'color:' . esc_attr( $pheader_title_color ) . ';'; } if ( $css_title ) { echo '.penci-page-header-wrap .penci-page-header-title {' . $css_title . '}'; } if ( $pheader_line_color ) { echo '.penci-page-header-wrap .penci-page-header-title:before{ border-color: ' . esc_attr( $pheader_line_color ) . '; opacity: 1; }'; } if ( $pheader_bread_fsize ) { echo '.penci-page-header-wrap .container.penci-breadcrumb span, .penci-page-header-wrap .container.penci-breadcrumb a, .penci-page-header-wrap .container.penci-breadcrumb i{ font-size:' . esc_attr( $pheader_bread_fsize ) . 'px; }'; } if ( $pheader_bread_color ) { echo '.penci-page-header-wrap .container.penci-breadcrumb span, .penci-page-header-wrap .container.penci-breadcrumb a,.penci-page-header-wrap .container.penci-breadcrumb i{ color:' . esc_attr( $pheader_bread_color ) . '; }'; } if ( $pheader_bread_hcolor ) { echo '.penci-page-header-wrap .container.penci-breadcrumb a:hover{ color:' . $pheader_bread_hcolor . '; }'; } if ( $pheader_bgimg ) { echo '.penci-page-header-wrap{ background-image: url(' . esc_attr( $pheader_bgimg ) . '); }'; } if ( $pheader_bgcolor ) { echo '.penci-page-header-wrap{ background-color:' . esc_attr( $pheader_bgcolor ) . '; }'; } } endif; Pfizer Archives - The Village Green https://villagegreennj.com/tag/pfizer/ of Maplewood and South Orange Sun, 07 Nov 2021 23:23:25 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 https://villagegreennj.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/vg-fav-1.png Pfizer Archives - The Village Green https://villagegreennj.com/tag/pfizer/ 32 32 Essex County Now Offering Pfizer Vaccine for Children Ages 5-11 https://villagegreennj.com/health/essex-county-now-offering-pfizer-vaccine-for-children-ages-5-11/ Sun, 07 Nov 2021 17:00:12 +0000 https://villagegreennj.com/?p=84907

From Maplewood Township: The CDC has approved the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5-11.…

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From Maplewood Township:

The CDC has approved the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5-11. Essex County vaccination centers (Essex County College, West orange KMART, Livingston Sears) will begin 5-11 year old vaccinations starting November 3, 2021.

Vaccinations are by appointment only, see https://essexcovid.org/ for an appointment. Hours for 5-11 year old vaccinations are Monday through Friday 4:00pm-7:00pm and Saturday 9:00am-5:00pm. To find other vaccine locations, please visit https://covid19.nj.gov/pages/finder.

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]]> Mobile Vaccine Clinic at CHS August 17 for South Orange-Maplewood Residents Age 12 & Up https://villagegreennj.com/health/mobile-vaccine-clinic-at-chs-august-17-for-south-orange-maplewood-residents-age-12-up/ Sun, 15 Aug 2021 13:08:48 +0000 https://villagegreennj.com/?p=83175

From the South Orange-Maplewood School District: Hello SOMSD Community, The Essex County Mobile Health…

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From the South Orange-Maplewood School District:

Hello SOMSD Community,

The Essex County Mobile Health Clinic in partnership with the District, Maplewood Township and South Orange Village will be providing onsite Covid-19 vaccinations at Columbia High School (gym parking lot)  on Tuesday, August 17 and September 7* from 10am – 2pm.  Vaccinations are available to SOMA residents age 12 and up.  For more information visit the District website: bit.ly/3Cuin7V

THREE VACCINATIONS AVAILABLE ONSITE:

  • Pfizer (Age 12+)
  • Moderna / Johnson & Johnson (Age 18+)
  • Parent/Guardian must accompany their child(ren) for vaccine administration

Key Details:

  • Open to all Maplewood and South Orange Residents
  • Must register with the Maplewood Department of Health by calling:  (973) 762-1820
  • Location:  CHS Gym Parking Lot (located on Valley Street)

*The Mobile Unit will return on Tuesday. September 7th (three weeks later) to give the 2nd dose of Pfizer); If you get the Moderna vaccination on August 17, you will have to go to another county location, four weeks later, for the 2nd dose. J&J is one dose

SPANISH:

Hola comunidad de SOMSD,

La Clínica de Salud Móvil del Condado de Essex en asociación con el Distrito, Maplewood Township y South Orange Village proporcionarán vacunas Covid-19 en el lugar en Columbia High School (estacionamiento del gimnasio) el martes 17 de agosto y el 7 de septiembre* de 10 a.m. a 2 p.m. Las vacunas están disponibles para los residentes de SOMA de 12 años en adelante.  Para obtener más información, visite el sitio web del distrito: bit.ly/3Cuin7V

TRES VACUNAS DISPONIBLES EN EL LUGAR:

  • Pfizer (edad 12+)
  • Moderna / Johnson & Johnson (mayores de 18 años)
  • El padre / tutor debe acompañar a su (s) hijo (s) para la administración de la vacuna

Detalles clave:

  • Abierto para todos los residentes de Maplewood y South Orange
  • Debe registrarse con el Departamento de Salud de Maplewood llamando al: (973) 762-1820
  • Ubicación: Estacionamiento del gimnasio de CHS (ubicado en Valley Street)

* La Unidad Móvil regresará el martes. 7 de septiembre (tres semanas después) para administrar la segunda dosis de Pfizer); Si recibe la vacuna Moderna el 17 de agosto, tendrá que ir a otra ubicación del condado, cuatro semanas después, para la segunda dosis. J&J es una dosis

Haitian Creole:

Bonjou Kominote SOMSD,

Essex County Mobile Health Clinic an patenarya avèk Distri a, Maplewood Township ak South Orange Village pral bay vaksinasyon Covid-19 nan plas nan lekòl segondè Columbia (pakin jimnastik) nan Madi, 17 Out ak 7 septanm* soti nan 10am – 2pm. Vaksinasyon yo disponib pou rezidan SOMA ki gen laj 12 an ak plis.  Pou plis enfòmasyon vizite sit entènèt Distri a: bit.ly/3Cuin7V

TWA VAKSINASYON DISPONIB SOU SIT:

  • Pfizer (Laj 12+)
  • Moderna / Johnson & Johnson (Laj 18+)
  • Paran / Gadyen dwe akonpaye pitit yo pou yo ka pran vaksen an

Detay kle:

  • Louvri pou tout moun ki abite Maplewood ak South Orange
  • Ou dwe enskri nan Depatman Sante Maplewood lè w rele: (973) 762-1820
  • Kote: CHS pakin jimnastik (ki chita sou Valley Street)

* Inite mobil la ap retounen nan Madi. 7 septanm (twa semèn pita) bay 2zyèm dòz Pfizer); Si ou pran vaksen an Moderna sou Out 17, ou pral gen pou yo ale nan yon lòt kote konte, kat semèn pita, pou 2yèm dòz la. J & J se yon sèl dòz

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]]> Health Department’s Predictive Modeling Shows NJ About to Turn COVID-19 Corner https://villagegreennj.com/health/health-departments-predictive-modeling-shows-nj-about-to-turn-covid-19-corner/ Thu, 21 Jan 2021 15:49:55 +0000 https://villagegreennj.com/?p=78257

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under…

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This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Click here for the original article, written by Lilo H. Stainton.

New COVID-19 diagnoses and hospitalizations could peak within days in New Jersey before beginning a gradual, months-long decline, according to state predictive modeling that also indicates 70% of eligible residents could be immunized by June 1, allowing for significant community protection against the pandemic.

State health officials were quick to explain that the immunization timeline is heavily dependent on federal supply of vaccines and the June 1 target assumes that the single-dose Johnson & Johnson serum not yet approved by federal regulators is available in March. Until then, the vaccine rollout will have limited impact on infection trends, the model notes.

The state Department of Health predictions — from a model developed by the University of Pennsylvania that has proved accurate in the past — indicate that daily coronavirus testing numbers and related hospitalizations could reach an apex this Sunday, Jan. 24. Based on various scenarios, the state anticipates between 6,000 and 7,000 cases will be detected that day and 3,800 to 4,700 coronavirus patients will be hospitalized.

Have fatalities peaked?

On Wednesday the DOH reported some 5,800 new COVID-19 cases, detected by both the standard PCR (nose-swab) and the newer antibody tests. The state reported nearly 3,600 hospitalizations and 122 lab-confirmed deaths. Tracking these data points over time shows daily death numbers appear to have peaked at 175 fatalities on Dec. 30. The number of deaths is now ticking downward. Hospitalizations seem to have leveled off since mid-December, and new cases were trending upward until recently, reaching a high point of nearly 7,000 new diagnoses on Jan. 13 before starting to decline.

Gov. Phil Murphy hinted at this positive trend during his regular media briefing Tuesday, when he suggested modeling showed the state was approaching a turning point and noted we were now more than two weeks past the most recent holiday, which might have given rise to a spike in the disease.

“You combine hopefully a peak with more vaccine supplies,” Murphy said, noting the state was working to expand the number of immunization sites and reiterating his plea to federal officials for more doses. “Of course, we are still not anywhere near in the clear yet,” he added, reminding people to continue to stay socially distanced and to mask up.

Murphy also expressed relief Tuesday that hospitals have not been overwhelmed, as nearly happened last spring when the demand for clinical-care resources came close to outpacing supply. “Overall, we are seeing a decent measure of stability across our hospital systems,” he said. “While we continue to hold our breath a little bit, this stability is a good sign.”

The state predictions align with those of the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a respected source of coronavirus modeling. According to the IMHE model, New Jersey passed the peak level of new COVID-19 infections nearly a week ago and could experience the highest hospitalization numbers – nearly 5,000 patients — on Jan. 29.

Accurately predicting the peak

While both IMHE and state models significantly overestimated the likely patient surge at the start of the pandemic, they were highly accurate on the timing of that initial peak, which coincided with Easter weekend. At that point New Jersey’s 71 acute-care hospitals were treating more than 7,600 patients, including 1,700 in critical care — almost all of whom were on ventilators.

The impact of COVID-19 on New Jersey — in terms of cases, hospitalizations and deaths — declined from there and remained relatively minimal over the summer. But by October, the data indicated the virus was spreading again and health officials predicted a bleak winter.

Since the first cases were detected here in March, more than 641,000 coronavirus cases have been detected in New Jersey, at least 55,000 patients have been hospitalized with the virus and some 20,600 people have died, according to state data. IMHE predicts the state will record more than 25,000 fatalities by May; state modeling indicates that, after Jan. 24, new cases and hospitalizations will decline steadily through June, at which point new cases and hospitalizations could be as low as 1,000 each per day.

News of a vaccine, the first of which was approved for emergency use in late November, has provided hope and prompted predictions of quicker recovery. But supply chain delays and complex logistics have resulted in a relatively slow pace of immunizations.

New Jersey officials have set a goal of vaccinating 70% of the eligible population, about 4.7 million people, within six months. Some 421,000 doses have been administered so far, less than half of the vaccines DOH officials said the state has received from the federal government.

There are now two government-approved vaccines in use, by drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna, both of which require two shots several weeks apart; Pfizer’s product also depends on deep-freeze technology to keep it fresh. The Johnson & Johnson version is one of several products now in final trials and public health leaders are hoping it will get the federal OK soon.

“Listen, if Johnson & Johnson comes through, that’s a game changer, period,” Murphy said Tuesday. While it is not clear how many doses would be shipped to New Jersey and how quickly, Murphy appeared to remain optimistic. “I still believe we’re in a dramatically different place on Memorial Day. I’ve said that now a number of times. I can’t guarantee you that we’ve gotten 4.7 million people with shots in their arms, but we’re in a dramatically different and better place.”

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]]> Q&A: The Next Round in NJ’s Rollout of COVID-19 Vaccine https://villagegreennj.com/health/qa-the-next-round-in-njs-rollout-of-covid-19-vaccine/ Fri, 08 Jan 2021 15:22:30 +0000 https://villagegreennj.com/?p=77895

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under…

The post Q&A: The Next Round in NJ’s Rollout of COVID-19 Vaccine appeared first on The Village Green.

]]>

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Click here for the original article, written by Lilo H. Stainton.

New Jersey is moving to a second round of COVID-19 vaccinations, announcing Wednesday that the next group of eligible people will be inoculated soon. It will be some time before the vaccine is widely available. And the state is still moving to get vaccines to health care workers, residents at long-term care facilities and others in its first priority group.

Here are key questions and answers about the COVID-19 vaccine rollout as it stands now.

Who is being vaccinated now?

New Jersey chose to prioritize paid and unpaid health care workers, staff and residents in long-term care centers, and others in many congregate care settings, including state-run facilities for disabled individuals and federal senior housing sites. These are all considered part of the 1a group. According to the state’s calculations, there are roughly 650,000 health care workers in the state and 90,000 residents in nursing homes, assisted living and other long-term care. Tens of thousands more live in other congregate settings. While officials believe it is an undercount, they reported nearly 138,000 people have been vaccinated so far.

On Wednesday, Gov. Phil Murphy announced that law enforcement and firefighters — both paid and volunteer — could also receive vaccines, starting today. Emergency medical responders are eligible as part of the 1a group. This work puts them at risk of infection, he said, and the state wants to immunize as many people as possible as quickly as it can to help slow the spread. Police and fire officials are considered members of the 1b group of frontline workers, which also includes other professions that come in contact with the public, like bus drivers and other transportation workers or food handlers.

“These are our frontline responders who through their jobs have a greater risk of coming into contact with infectious people and infectious materials. We are able to open up vaccination to them based on the available supply,” state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said, noting 1a individuals will still be eligible. “The movement between phases will be fluid — one phase will overlap with another — we will not wait for all individuals in one phase to be vaccinated before opening to additional groups of people.”

Who comes next, and when will the rest of us be eligible?

The state Department of Health is working with an advisory committee that meets regularly to determine what other frontline workers in the 1b group will be made eligible next; additional details could be available in the near future, officials said. There are an estimated 2.5 million people in the 1b group. That will be followed by the 1c group, which includes individuals over age 65 or those of any age who have certain underlying conditions; this adds another 1 million people.

Eventually, the state hopes to vaccinate 4.7 million people — roughly 70% of those eligible for the vaccines. While the timeline continues to evolve, Persichilli said it may take until April or May before the state has enough vaccines on hand to immunize everyone on their list. State officials said they would continue to inform the public as the plan moves forward.

The vaccines are being shipped by the federal government from vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna directly to various vaccination sites in each state. Like other states, New Jersey was not initially receiving the amount it had requested, but in recent weeks it has been granted almost all of the doses ordered, more than 100,000 a week. The DOH declined to say Wednesday how many vaccines are now in state, but officials said they are not stockpiling supplies.

How do I get on the state’s list to be vaccinated?

Despite suggestions it would roll out a sign-up process slowly, New Jersey opened its vaccine sign-up portal late Tuesday; demand quickly overwhelmed the technology, which experienced several glitches before more than 450,000 people had added their names. On Wednesday, Persichilli said the site should for now be reserved for health care workers, first responders, law enforcement and firefighters, and urged the public to wait a few more weeks before trying to sign up. Sign-up is also available through some county sites or via hospital systems.

Persichilli said the system will alert individuals when they are eligible and direct them to a site to make an appointment and select a location. All information will be kept confidential, she said. Whatever sign-up system people use, “I just want them to get vaccinated,” she said.

Where are these vaccines happening?

The state started vaccinating hospital-based health care workers on Dec. 15, at University Hospital in Newark, and distribution has since grown to more than 200 sites run by hospitals, doctors’ offices, drug stores and public health facilities. These facilities are designed for the 1a group of various health care workers.

On Friday, the state will open the first two of six planned vaccine “megasites,” designed to immunize at least 1,000 people a week, at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall in Morris County and Rowan University in Gloucester County. The state is seeking additional vaccinators and has asked for clinicians trained to provide intramuscular injections to consider volunteering. Sign-up is available through the New Jersey Medical Reserve Corps portal.

Eventually, Murphy said he’d like to see hundreds of additional vaccine clinics, in grocery stores, dentist offices or community facilities. Murphy envisions “a whole tapestry of where you can get this,” he said.

The vaccinations in long-term care and congregate care facilities are being organized and administered by teams from CVS and Walgreens, thanks to a partnership the federal government established with the two chain drug stores. The state is supporting their work, which began in late December — a week later than some states — and has started at a slow pace. Persichilli said more than 1,000 locations are now scheduled to host vaccine clinics through February.

What does the immunization process involve?

Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two shots, several weeks apart, to offer full immunity. Most of the protection comes from the first shot and develops within two weeks, once the body has time to mount an immune response. Both vaccines are considered highly effective, protecting against COVID-19 infection in close to 95% of the cases, an extremely high rate.

When asked if the vaccine is safe, state DOH communicable disease service medical director Dr. Ed Lifshitz said, “Let me put it relatively simply. In New Jersey, we’ve had about half a million cases of COVID with almost 20,000 deaths. In the United States, we’ve given almost 10 times that number of doses (of the vaccine) — or over 4 million doses — with zero deaths from the vaccine. I certainly would take my odds with the vaccine over the virus any day of the week.”

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]]> COVID-19 Vaccine Coming as NJ Plans for Who Gets it First https://villagegreennj.com/health/covid-19-vaccine-coming-as-nj-plans-for-who-gets-it-first/ Wed, 09 Dec 2020 14:51:26 +0000 https://villagegreennj.com/?p=77266

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under…

The post COVID-19 Vaccine Coming as NJ Plans for Who Gets it First appeared first on The Village Green.

]]>

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Click here for the original article, written by Lilo H. Stainton.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated Monday to reflect new information from the Department of Health regarding the number of people the initial doses of the vaccine will cover.

With New Jersey slated to receive its first 76,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine any day now, public health officials are finalizing their plans for immunizing priority groups, and hospitals are preparing to store and administer the serum.

This first shipment is expected to be followed by another 76,000 doses, since each person needs two doses of the vaccine, state health officials said Monday morning. That first shipment is slated to arrive in advance of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s final decision on the Pfizer product, scheduled for Thursday, which could allow coronavirus immunizations to begin nationwide. The FDA intends to review a vaccine by Moderna the following week.

“We are ready for this moment,” Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday, noting the state is expecting rolling shipments and could have 300,000 to 500,000 doses on hand by the end of 2020. “The light on the other side of this pandemic is now becoming visible. This is a game-changer.”

Late Friday, the state Department of Health confirmed that those first in line for the vaccine will not only include the 650,000 first responders and health care workers most at risk, but also another 75,000 nursing home residents. While the state’s draft vaccine plan initially focused on health care and emergency professionals — both paid and unpaid, in all settings — that has evolved.

Prioritizing long-term care facilities

Early last week, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged states to also consider prioritizing residents in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities as part of this first phase to be vaccinated. Long-term care providers, including the Health Care Association of New Jersey (HCANJ), also highlighted this recommendation.

“This announcement is great news to long term care providers and the residents they serve, and we are grateful for the hard work that the (CDC advisory committee) put into establishing a system by which those who are in the greatest danger of infection get earliest access to a vaccine,” said Dr. Stuart H. Shapiro, interim president and CEO of the HCANJ, a trade group that represents hundreds of the state’s long-term care facilities, in a statement distributed before the state made its decision public.

Long-term care residents are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 because of their congregate living setting and the likely presence of other clinical risk factors, like advanced age and underlying conditions. Roughly 43% of the coronavirus-related deaths in New Jersey since March are connected to long-term care, according to state figures.

DOH submitted its draft vaccine plan to the CDC in October and was scheduled to provide them an updated version by the end of last week. Murphy said at his press briefing Friday that the state has “refined” the draft plan but did not provide details.

When will vaccines be administered?

Also unclear is how quickly any vaccines will be administered once FDA emergency approval is granted, even to those in the priority group. Murphy suggested Friday that additional batches of the Pfizer product could be shipped to New Jersey within 24 hours of this decision but the health department is also set to conduct its own review of the data submitted by the federal vaccine committee. It is not clear how long that will take.

DOH communications director Donna Leusner said Friday evening that the goal was to begin immunizations “as soon as possible.”

The vaccine program appears to be evolving on the federal level as well, based on Murphy’s reports of his weekly meetings with the Trump administration. In late November, Murphy said New Jersey anticipated an initial shipment of 130,000 doses — or enough to protect 65,000 residents — with at least 1 million doses to arrive by year’s end.

DOH Commissioner Judy Persichilli has set what she calls an ambitious goal of immunizing 70% of the state’s eligible population — about 4.7 million people — within six months of the COVID-19 vaccine being widely available, likely in late April or May. (It has not been tested in children, pregnant individuals or those with compromised immune systems.) Until then, Persichilli underscored the need to continue wearing masks, maintaining distance and taking other infection-control precautions.

“To be clear, the mere presence of a vaccine in our state does not mean that we can flip a light switch and remove all restrictions or lift every advisory. COVID isn’t going to simply vanish just because there are vaccine doses in a freezer waiting for distribution,” Murphy said Friday. “This is going to be more like a dimmer, and the light will get brighter and brighter over time. To get to full brightness will take months and it will take millions of New Jerseyans getting vaccinated,” he said.

Even with ample supply, challenges will remain

Even when the state has sufficient vaccine supply, the challenges are significant: At least one of the vaccines must be stored in extreme deep freezers that are not readily available, and distribution must be coordinated among thousands of public and private vaccination sites under the draft DOH plan. Plus, skepticism about the vaccine is widespread, even among health care providers.

To improve the distribution and tracking process, Murphy said Friday he would sign an order so that anyone who gets a COVID-19 vaccine would automatically have their results and other data included in an existing state immunization database, unless they choose to opt out of the system. In the past, most people getting immunized against the flu or other diseases had to opt in to be included.

“Let me be perfectly clear that this order does not force anyone to receive the vaccine,” Murphy said Friday, although he said the state would likely “strongly recommend it” based on the DOH final review. “We’re doing this for a simple reason — to ensure that those who choose to receive a vaccine get the most effective course in the most streamlined manner possible, on the proper timetable and without logistical or bureaucratic hurdles in the way.”

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]]> NJ Says It’s Ready to Distribute Possible COVID-19 Vaccine https://villagegreennj.com/health/nj-says-its-ready-to-distribute-possible-covid-19-vaccine/ Wed, 11 Nov 2020 16:26:07 +0000 https://villagegreennj.com/?p=76577

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under…

The post NJ Says It’s Ready to Distribute Possible COVID-19 Vaccine appeared first on The Village Green.

]]>

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Click here for the original article, written by Lilo H. Stainton.

With coronavirus diagnoses continuing to climb, New Jersey officials welcomed news Monday that a COVID-19 vaccine now in clinical trials appears to be highly effective. While many challenges remain, they suggested if all goes as planned a vaccine could be approved within weeks and available for widespread distribution in April 2021.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced early Monday that the vaccine it has developed appears to be 90% effective in protecting adults against the virus — a better outcome than many expected and nearly double the protection offered by some influenza inoculations, experts noted.

“The good news is that a vaccine is on the horizon,” Gov. Phil Murphy said at a previously scheduled media briefing hours later. He warned that New Jersey’s second wave of coronavirus continues to grow, with more than 9,000 new cases diagnosed since Thursday, an average of nearly 2,400 daily.

Immunizations possible by spring

Murphy said White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci told him over the weekend that if federal officials approve the Pfizer vaccine — or one of the other candidates — in the coming weeks, immunizations could be available to the general public by the spring.

Until then, Murphy said we are in a “six-month race to the finish line,” and reiterated the need to continue to wear masks, maintain social distance and resist so-called pandemic fatigue. He also announced a 10 p.m. curfew for indoor bars and restaurants and suspended interstate high school athletics in an effort to better control the spread of the disease.

“Let’s focus on these upcoming six months. This is not forever or always,” Murphy said of the new business restrictions. “Let’s get through the remainder of this fall and winter together. Let’s work harder knowing that if we can beat back this pandemic today, we can ultimately defeat it for good this spring.”

State officials have drafted an initial plan for distributing a COVID-19 vaccine once approved, with a goal of immunizing 70% of the eligible population — or about 4.7 million adults — within six months after the vaccine is widely available. Supplies will eventually be plentiful, they have said, although convincing people to be vaccinated may be a challenge, given a poll that suggests one-third of doctors and more than half of nurses surveyed may have concerns about getting the vaccine when first approved.

But in an interview with CBS 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, state health Commissioner Judy Persichilli raised concerns about the potential limited availability of vaccines initially, when state officials want to focus on protecting priority frontline health workers. The state’s plan calls for roughly 500,000 high-risk health care employees to be vaccinated first, when the first batch of approved vaccines is ready.

Protecting frontline workers

Persichilli said federal officials told her they would initially provide New Jersey enough to cover 50,000 people — or one in 10 of the priority individuals identified — with another similar-sized batch to follow. The state’s calculation assumes each person needs two doses, as Pfizer’s vaccine requires.

But on Monday Persichilli said she was expecting a “capacity update” from federal officials later that day and suggested New Jersey may actually receive a larger initial shipment than first expected. The state’s vaccine task force is slated to meet again on Thursday, she said, at which time members plan to discuss various distribution scenarios based on the latest developments.

Murphy, a first-term Democrat, also embraced comments by President-elect Joe Biden, who outlined plans for his coronavirus task force Monday and reiterated his promise to follow the science to help the nation respond to the pandemic, which has infected nearly 10 million Americans. In New Jersey, nearly 257,000 cases have been diagnosed since March, including some 16,400 fatalities likely linked to the disease.

Biden — who has issued a 7-point plan to combat COVID-19 — also underscored the need to continue basic infection-control measures as the work to finalize a vaccine continues. “A mask remains the most potent weapon against the virus. Today’s news (from Pfizer) won’t change that reality,” he said. “We can save tens of thousands of lives if everybody would just wear a mask for the next few months.”

Dr. Don Liss, chief medical officer of New Jersey health insurance giant Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, agreed that with Pfizer’s announcement, it was indeed “a good day for science.” While the trial is limited in its size, if the vaccine prevented COVID-19 infections in nine out of 10 cases, the efficacy rate is “way higher than what I was expecting,” Liss said.

Logistics of distribution

Significant challenges remain when it comes to the logistics of distributing the vaccine and tracking administration, Liss said. Pfizer’s version requires “ultra-cold storage” — at temperatures below minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit — technology currently in place at few facilities, he said.

State Department of Health medical director Dr. Edward Lifshitz also hailed Pfizer’s announcement of the 90% efficacy rate, which he said would “exceed expectations” and be “tremendous news,” if it holds in wider testing. He noted that even those who are not fully protected against COVID-19 — the remaining 10% — could experience less severe symptoms if they are infected.

But Lifshitz warned that much remains unknown about any vaccine, including how well it protects people across ages and demographics. It is not clear how long protection from a vaccine lasts, he added, or how immunization impacts the likelihood of transmitting the disease.

“There’s an awful lot that we don’t know yet,” Lifshitz said. “I’ll just start by saying it’s extremely positive, but extremely early.”

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