White House COVID Coordinator Praises NJ Vaccine Program

By Jim Pytell, Managing Editor On Jun 2, 2021

White House COVID Response Coordinator Jeff Zients joined Gov. Phil Murphy at his COVID-19 briefing today to discuss the progress being made in the fight against COVID-19 both at a national and local level, praising New Jersey’s state vaccination program as one of the nation’s best.

The briefing, held virtually on Facebook, was the 200th since the pandemic began in March 2020.

“Over these 200 briefings, we have reported numbers to you as they are given to us each day, we have ridden the curves like a roller coaster for the past 15 months, and we have always been up front with you about the challenges we faced – striving to give you the information that you needed to keep yourselves and your families safe,” Murphy said.

Zients said that the country is now down to fewer than 20,000 COVID-19 cases per day, with virus-induced deaths having dropped by more than 85% across the country over the past four and a half months.

“You have made extraordinary progress in New Jersey as well, including a 93% decline in cases across the last four and a half months,” Zients added. “We are further ahead in the fight against the virus than anyone thought we would be at this point. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter each day.”

Zients credited this progress to several things including a “wartime effort” in creating a nationwide vaccination program; state governors’ tireless work to build robust state level vaccination programs; as well as citizens doing their part to stay safe and healthy.

So far, there have been a total of 4,259,893 fully vaccinated individuals in New Jersey.

“I hear from my team all the time that New Jersey has one of the best performing vaccination programs in the nation,” Zients said, adding that New Jersey was also one of the first states to hit the milestone of getting 70% of its adult population vaccinated.

Additionally, Zients said that President Biden is today announcing a national month of action to mobilize a nationwide sprint to get even more people vaccinated by July 4.

This effort will include new commitments by some of the largest childcare providers in the country to provide free drop-in childcare to parents getting vaccinated, as well as extended pharmacy hours including many pharmacies open 24 hours on Fridays in the month of June beginning next week. 

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