Robert Wood Johnson Among 1st NJ Hospitals To Get COVID Vaccine

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — The main campus of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick is among the first batch of hospitals in the state to receive Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine.

The state of New Jersey has 76,050 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to give in the first round.

The other hospitals who got it in the first round are University Health in Newark (also part of the RWJ-Barnabas network), Hackensack University Medical Center, Morristown Medical Center, AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City and Cooper University Hospital in Camden. All have arctic-level, subzero freezers in place to store the vaccines.

Very soon, 53 acute care hospitals in New Jersey will have the Pfizer vaccine, officials said, but those five are in the first round.

New Jersey has been one of the hardest hits states in the nation in the coronavirus pandemic.

The first shots will be given out to doctors, nurses and long-term care patients at RWJ New Brunswick this week. The Pfizer vaccine requires two injections.

And Rutgers doctors Robert L. Johnson and Justin Sambol will be among the first in the nation to receive the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday during Gov. Murphy’s tour of the University Hospital in Newark. University Hospital is run by Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

Johnson is a dean at Rutgers RWJ Medical School and Sambol is a senior associate dean for clinical affairs at Rutgers NJMS and a surgery professor.

The Moderna vaccine is also right around the corner, with approval expected to come from the FDA this week. Eighteen New Jersey hospitals will have that vaccine likely by the beginning of next week, Dec. 21. The Moderna vaccine does not need to be kept at such a cold temperature as the Pfizer vaccine: The Pfizer vaccine must be stored at -70 degrees Celsius; Moderna at -20 degrees Celsius.

On Monday, Gov. Murphy warned New Jersey residents not to let their guard down.

"These numbers will not magically return to zero because we are giving our first round of vaccinations," said the governor. "We are in for several hard months, especially the next six to eights weeks. As vaccinations move forward, we will face stiff head winds."

"For use to reach herd immunity it will require 70 percent of New Jersey adults to be vaccinated. That's four million people," he said. "We cannot let our guard down. Especially to our younger folks: The new infections skew to younger residents while the share of deaths skews to the older residents. So you may be young; you may show no symptoms, but you could be passing this to your parents and grandparents and essentially — I hate to say it — killing them."