N.J. Will Get 38% Fewer COVID-19 Vaccines Next Week

New Jersey is set to receive 38 percent fewer doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer next week, and an overall 20 percent reduction this month.

"I don't think we've gotten a satisfactory reason why," Gov. Phil Murphy said during a briefing in Trenton on Friday. "It's apparently every American state has received a smaller...allocation."

The state will receive 53,600 doses, down from an expected batch of 86,700 vaccines in its next shipment. And this month will receive 392,800 doses from both Pfizer and Moderna, down from an expected 492,000. Both vaccines require two doses. 

State Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said the state is opening six vaccination mega-sites in early January for health care workers, and has received more than 200 applications from urgent care clinics, county facilities and others to serve as vaccination sites.

Since Tuesday, when the first vaccination was administered to a nurse at University Hospital in Newark, 2,149 health workers in New Jersey have received the first dose of Pfizer's vaccine. 

Persichilli said the state wants to vaccinate 70 percent of its eligible population in the next six months, about 4.7 million people.

"Yes, that is aggressive and yes, it is aspirational but it is what we need to do so this virus has no place to go," she said.

The state also missed a deadline to qualify for inoculating residents of long term care facilities next week and will instead start on Dec. 28. 

"It was just the volume of information that had to be inputted," Persichilli said, citing the state's more than 600 facilities.