PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday an expansion of COVID-19 vaccine eligibility for frontline essential workers and high-risk groups in the state.
Effective March 15, teachers and support staff in pre-K to grade 12; child care workers, transportation workers, including bus, taxi, ride-hail drivers and airport employees; and public safety workers who are not sworn law enforcement or fire professionals, including probation officers and fire safety inspectors are eligible.
Also included in the expanded list are migrant farm workers, members of tribal communities, people experiencing homelessness or living in shelter, including people in domestic violence shelters.
"We expect this to be a total of several hundred thousand workers and residents," he said. "What is being constructed, between now and the 15th -- the exact how and where and, in some cases, when -- is going to be worked out."
Murphy said the Department of Health would work with the Department of Education, the teachers union, and education leaders on the best way to grant full access to vaccines without distrupting school days.
Murphy says they're opening up eligibility even wider two weeks later, on March 29, "for frontline essential workers in the restaurant and food-processing and distribution industries, grocery personal, warehouse workers, long shoreman and women."
Murphy says elections workers, clergy, postal and shipping, elder care, hospitality, medical supply, social services support staff and judicial employees will also be eligible in the group.
Murphy said the health department is reaching out to all N.J. residents age 75 and older, and scheduling appointments, as well as increasing vaccine allotments to mega-sites specifically for seniors.
He adds right now there are about 300 vaccination sites across the state, a number he plans to see increase as more vaccines become available. Pfizer and Moderna promised last week to ramp-up production.
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"We'll be able to distribute to even more sites, whether they be doctors offices, neighborhood pharmacies, healthcare clinics and the like," he said.
He adds 70,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are expected to be delivered to New Jersey this week.
"If you have an appointment, you have a vaccine," the governor said.
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