South Jersey Hospitals Ready To Distribute Coronavirus Vaccine

Hospitals in South Jersey are getting ready to administer a vaccine for the coronavirus as early as next week. That doesn't mean residents should let their guard down when it comes to avoiding the spread of the coronavirus, though, officials said.

Officials discussed the issue Friday morning, hours before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the coronavirus vaccine developed by pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. Read more here: Coronavirus Vaccine Gets Emergency Use Authorization By FDA

The timeline for distribution, though, depends on the number of vaccines that receive approval, according to Virtua Health Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jennifer Khelil.

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While Pfizer’s vaccine has been approved, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Astrazeneca are all also working on vaccines.

“The answer to the question of when is going to be highly dependent on how many of those vaccines come to market, when they come to market, how quickly they can be manufactured and distributed, and what percentage of the population is going to accept the vaccine,” Khelil said.

She did say she expects things to happen quickly, though.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has prioritized health care workers and staff workers and residents at long-term care facilities to be among the first residents to get the vaccine.

Next would come people who are out in the community, including first responders, firefighters, police officers, meat packers and food workers, among others. Next would come high-risk people in the community. The majority of the general population should expect to be able to be vaccinated in the late spring to early summer, Khelil said.

Camden County Freeholder Barbara Holcomb and Camden County Health Department Director Anne Walters said the county will work with all hospitals to get the vaccine out, beginning with Cooper University Health Care.

A distribution center will be set up in the gymnasium at Camden County College’s Blackwood campus, with more details on that expected soon, officials said.

Pfizer has said clinical trials show its vaccine is about 95 percent effective. It has already been approved for use in the United Kingdom and Canada.

Gov. Phil Murphy has said he expects 300,000 to 500,000 vaccine doses in New Jersey by the end of December. He also said that now is not the time to let your guard down, a sentiment that was echoed by county officials on Friday. Read more here: NJ Streamlines Vaccine Distribution, Provides New Timing Details

“The vaccine was preliminarily approved last night, but that does not mean you can stop wearing a mask, that does not mean that you can stop socially distancing from people, that does not mean that you should stop washing your hands,” Walters said. “You need to take care of yourselves now. You do not want to spend Christmas in your room with COVID, or worse, in your room in an ICU bed.”