SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — As New Jersey hospitals prepare to receive the first shipments of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Phil Murphy is streamlining the way the doses are tracked.
At his coronavirus briefing on Friday, Murphy said he’s signing an order changing the state’s Immunization Information System from “opt-in” to “opt-out.”
“This means that if you wish to be vaccinated against COVID-19 — and believe me if we tell you it's safe, we want you to do that — you don’t have to first opt into the system to make sure that your two-dose regimen is properly tracked and managed.”
Murphy said it’s important to make the system as efficient as possible when health care workers receive the first vaccinations. He expects the vaccines will be shipped within 24 hours of FDA emergency approval.
But the governor said even though there is light at the end of the tunnel, the state is in for a “rough couple of months” before the vaccine is widely administered.
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“The mere presence of a vaccine in our state does not mean that we can flip a light switch and remove all restrictions or lift every advisory. COVID isn’t going to simply vanish just because there are vaccine doses in a freezer waiting for distribution,” he said.
Murphy said New Jersey reached a new daily record of new coronavirus cases: 5,673. He also announced another 48 deaths. The total since the start of the pandemic now stands at 356,662 cases and 15,419 deaths.
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