Summit Medical Group Starts Vaccines For Area Health Workers

SUMMIT, NJ — Summit Medical Group, New Jersey’s oldest multispecialty physician group, was among the first group of healthcare providers to receive the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from the state. They began giving it to their staff on Dec. 22, and said they will vaccinate area health care workers next, then other populations.

New Jersey health officials said the goal is to vaccinate 70 percent of the state’s adult population in the next six months.

SMG said that on Jan. 4, they will be opening appointments to our patients 18 years and older who are non-hospital based health care workers. Sign up here: https://www.summitmedicalgroup.com/covid-19-patient-vaccine-program

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, including the Moderna vaccine, are a new type of vaccine that doesn't include the weakened virus, but rather, teaches human cells to make a protein that triggers the immune response (read more about that here).

The state has already designated other three vaccine centers in Union County, and some of those may vaccinate residents over 75 later this month. Read more here.

Summit Medical Group CEO Jeffrey Le Benger, MD, and a diverse group of medical staff were among the first group of front-line health care professionals to volunteer to receive the vaccine.

SMG plans to inoculate thousands of its providers and employees, then its patients who work in health care, then all other patients and community members based on CDC guidelines.

The state has prioritized 1A workers in receiving the vaccine. They include doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, mortuary workers, lab technicians, janitors at medical offices, consultants, EMTs, and volunteers.

NJ death toll trends

The state is currently in the second wave of the virus.

Just before Christmas, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said that there were 111 fatalities among residents from Tuesday to Wednesday, the highest one-day toll since July. The state also marked a seven-month record-high in terms of total coronavirus hospitalizations, with 3,841 new hospitalizations (3,612 who had tested positive and 279 who were awaiting their test results).

A total of 765 patients were in ICU beds and 485 patients were on ventilators.

On Dec. 22, 426 patients were discharged from hospitals, and 498 new patients were admitted.

As of Sunday night, 351,000 Americans had died of the virus. (You can see which states had the highest death toll in the past week here.)

Take a look at Summit's case counts from past months here. The schools are on remote learning this week.

Did you miss our 2020 year in review stories? Here's the list from Union County.

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