Hoboken Has To Discard A Few Extra J&J COVID Vaccines: Report

HOBOKEN, NJ — Supply may be exceeding demand for the coronavirus vaccine in some areas of the country. The city of Hoboken, which has held numerous programs to vaccinate residents against coronavirus for the last five months, ended up discarding a small portion of a vaccine vial that went unused during a clinic Tuesday, according to a report on News 12.

The shots were Johnson & Johnson, a vaccine that was temporarily paused after 13 people reported blood clots out of 7.8 million shots. Use of the shot resumed this week — with a warning —and Hoboken resumed its use in various programs.

Ninety-seven people showed up for a clinic with a supply for 100 people on Tuesday, the News 12 story said. Some people likely preferred the Pfizer and Moderna shots due to concerns over Johnson & Johnson, noted the story, but those who showed up for the clinic on Tuesday said they wanted to get the one-shot J&J option in order to be protected sooner against the virus, which has caused 22,884 deaths in New Jersey. The Pfizer and Moderna shots, which use different technology, require two shots that are three weeks or a month apart. Hoboken is also using those vaccines in its programs (including one on Friday; see below).

As Patch reported last week, some pharmacies and clinics around Hoboken now have ample shots with no waiting list. READ MORE: More Hoboken Pharmacies Have COVID Vaccine

Meanwhile, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla said Wednesday night that the city will run another clinic Friday with 200 Moderna vaccines available.

The city and Hoboken Health Department are partnering with Hoboken Family Pharmacy to offer the 200 vaccines at a clinic Friday from 9 a.m. until 1:15 p.m. at 605 Jackson St. Vaccinations are available to all Hoboken residents and employees of Hoboken businesses (18 years of age and older). Residents or employees of Hoboken businesses can sign up for an appointment on a first-come, first-serve basis at the following link: www.hobokennj.gov/hfpvaccine.

• Read more about Hoboken's most recent coronavirus numbers, and its vaccination programs for this week, here.
• Read more about where else you can get vaccinated in Hoboken and Hudson County this week here.

New Jersey hospitalizations

While the vaccination rollout continues, the virus is still taking lives.

• In New Jersey on Wednesday, there were 35 new deaths reported from coronavirus since the day before. The state has seen a total of 22,884 deaths from the virus.
• 1,768 people were hospitalized with the virus in New Jersey as of Wednesday, 375 of those in critical care. This is down from 2,261 people a week ago Monday.
• The state's daily death toll has not declined to the level of Sept. 8, when only 2 deaths were reported in one day. New Jersey's peak daily death toll on April 30, 2020 was 460 fatalities reported in one day. The numbers then steadily dropped during the shutdowns in the summer, until September, when they began rising again.

As of Wednesday, across the country, approximately 574,000 Americans had died of the virus.

You can see which states had the highest death toll in the past week on this CDC map, and see how each county is doing with this CDC link.

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