PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — New Jersey is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Officials believe it’s from Thanksgiving gatherings.
Gov. Phil Murphy said there are currently more than 1,400 people with COVID-19 in the hospital, up by 400 in the last week, and the majority of those people are unvaccinated.
Omicron has been in the news a lot this past week, but it’s not the main problem in Jersey.
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“Our lived reality is that the delta variant remains overwhelmingly - I would almost say near exclusively - the variant of concern in New Jersey," said Murphy.
Health commissioner Judy Persichilli said the vaccines are effective against the delta variant, and added that if people haven’t had a vaccine or a booster, they should go get one as soon as they can.
“Currently, there are two mega sites open: The Gloucester County Public Works Complex in Clayton and the Burlington County Vaccination Site in Mt. Laurel," she explained.
She added that next week, they are launching a campaign to encourage people to get booster shots.
“We want to boost as many people as possible on Boost NJ Day, with hopefully every vaccination site in the state hosting a walk-in booster clinic on December 15th," Persichilli said.
"Walk-in availability and extended hours are important to make access to the booster as easy as possible.”
Persichilli said more details will be coming out in the coming week.
Murphy was also asked about New Jersey State Police allowing lawmakers into the State House, despite rules that prevent any unvaccinated people from entering without first showing a negative test.
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He declined to comment on any security matters, but he did go on a bit of a rant and called out those lawmakers as irresponsible.
"It's about the idiocy of these regulators who are putting their fellow members' health and the family, families of those fellow members at risk," said Murphy.
"This is not about freedom or civil rights, it's about their willingness to volitionally run the risk of infecting innocent, law-abiding folks who have done the right thing during this pandemic."