NJ Surpasses 1M Vaccine Doses, Get Covered NJ Enrollment Extended

By Jim Pytell, Managing Editor On Feb 8, 2021

There have now been more than 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in New Jersey, according to Gov. Phil Murphy. The first dose was administered on Dec. 15, and it took 29 days to get an initial 250,000 doses administered. The following 250,000 doses took 10 days to get administered, with the past 500,000 taking just 16 days.

“While this is a significant milestone, we have a good way to go to reach our ultimate goal of 4.7 million vaccinated adults by the beginning of the summer,” Murphy said. “We are definitely on our way, but we need much greater supply to get the vaccination infrastructure we purpose-built from the ground up working to its full potential.”

Murphy said that New Jersey’s six existing vaccine mega-sites alone are capable of vaccinating 10,000 to 15,000 people per day.

Vaccine supply is expected to increase gradually over the next three weeks, according to officials. This will allow more appointment slots to open up, and enable the next group of New Jerseyans to become eligible to receive their dose. This includes additional essential workers such as educators.

Get Covered NJ Health Exchange

Murphy additionally announced that he has added an additional enrollment period for New Jersey’s state-run Affordable Care Act (ACA) health exchange, Get Covered NJ. The initial open enrollment period closed on Jan. 31.

The new enrollment period, which Murphy said was added in response to the pandemic to allow those who still need health insurance to get covered, will last through May 15.

Since Get Covered NJ went live on Nov. 1, 269,500 New Jerseyans purchased a health plan through the marketplace.

This is an increase of 9.4% over last year’s enrollment period, when the marketplace was still being run by the federal government, according to Murphy.

He said that over the past three months, more than 75,000 new consumers purchased on the exchange, adding that consumers receiving income-based financial assistance for their plans are paying on average $121/month for their plans. That is $43/month lower than the plans they purchased in 2020, and $27/month lower than in 2014 when the ACA’s marketplaces first opened.

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