Union County COVID Vaccination Shots Given As Rollout Begins

UNION COUNTY, NJ — Union County on Thursday vaccinated its first resident, Union resident Carolyn Smith, a nurse practitioner at Kean University, to mark the start of Phase 1A COVID vaccinations at their county site at Kean.

New Jersey residents will be vaccinated in various phases, with health care workers, staffs of health facilities, and nursing home residents going first as part of Phase 1A.

Phase B will include other essential workers and people over 75, although some Phase 1B workers, like police and firefighters, were eligible as of Thursday.

The state's goal is to vaccinate 70 percent of the adult population – or 4.7 million adults – within six months.

The vaccination occurred at the county facility at approximately 3 p.m. — the start of the first day of the Union County center's operations.

Smith, who has more than 20 years of experience in the medical field and is a registered nurse in the states of New Jersey and New York, said, “I did it because I believe it is important to prevent the spread of the pandemic, to save lives, and protect my family, myself, my patients, and the community.”

Smith received her shot from Julie Wischusen of Cranford, a registered nurse who has been a frontline volunteer at Union County’s Drive-Through COVID-19 Test Center at Kean University ever since it opened in March, at the outset of the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Her husband, New York Jets announcer Bob Wischusen, created the “Let’s Feed Our Heroes” fundraising drive to purchase food for local hospital workers.

The facility is administering the Moderna vaccine.

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

Who qualifies

Union County Board of County Commissioner Chairman Alexander Mirabella said: “The Board of Commissioners commends Ms. Smith for setting the example and taking the first vaccination. We are pleased to open the vaccination clinic and begin offering life-saving vaccines ... As more supplies become available, we will announce locations and procedures."

County Commissioner Sergio Granados, who chairs the County’s Public Safety/Homeland Security Committee, said: “Our program began with over 300 vaccinations being provided today alone to those in the 1A category including Ms. Smith.

To find out about who qualifies under phase 1A or to make an appointment visit http://www.ucnj.org/vaccination.

To get the current hours for the site and other Union County vaccination information, click here.

Here is the address, as well as three other sites:

• Union County site, Kean University, 100 Morris Ave., Union https://ucnj.org/covid19/covid-19-vaccination/
• City of Elizabeth Health Department, 418 Palmer St. Elizabeth, (908) 820-4250
• ShopRite Pharmacy #163, 76 Central Ave., Clark, (732) 381-1133
• ShopRite Pharmacy Of Elizabeth, 865 West Grand St, Elizabeth (908) 558-0049

Phases

To find out about each phase, click this state information sheet.

The state of New Jersey, not individual counties and towns, decides when to go to the next phase.

Gov. Phil Murphy reportedly said Tuesday that he'd like to start vaccinating the general public by Memorial Day.

Death tolls

New Jersey had its highest new case total ever from this past Wednesday to Thursday, and a daily death toll of 123 people. More than 17,000 across the state have passed away from the virus.

This was the first time New Jersey topped 100 fatalities for three days in a row, since May. He said 3,488 people are hospitalized with the virus statewide, 668 on ICU, 469 on ventilators.

He also said 459 coronavirus patients were admitted to hospitals and 449 discharged.

As of Friday, 365,000 Americans had died of the virus. (You can see which states had the highest death toll in the past week on this CDC map.)

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