Gov. Murphy tours Moorestown Mall vaccine site; calls on feds to increase supply

Six state-run mega COVID-19 vaccination sites are now up and running in New Jersey, with sites in Atlantic City and the Meadowlands the last to open.

News 12 Staff

Jan 22, 2021, 10:08 PM

Updated 1,355 days ago

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Six state-run mega COVID-19 vaccination sites are now up and running in New Jersey, with sites in Atlantic City and the Meadowlands the last to open.
Gov. Phil Murphy stopped by the site at the Moorestown Mall in Burlington County on Friday to take a tour of the facility.
Pittman resident Kathy Benefield was among those who received her first dose of the vaccine.
“I’m going to start crying. I can’t say how relieved I am to get it,” she said.
While touring the facility, Murphy called on the federal government to step up distributing the vaccines to the states.
“We still don’t have the supply from the feds that we need,” he said.
Officials say that a low supply of vaccine doses means a smaller number of appointments.
“Here today we’re doing 500. Beginning next week, that’s expanding and I think to about 1,000. We can do up to about 3,000,” said Virtua Health president and CEO Dennis Pullin.
Virtua says that the health system is currently booked at the Moorestown site through April, based on what they expect to receive by way of vaccine doses. But officials say that if this changes, they will hopefully be able to move people up in appointments and that there is a chance someone may be able to get a last-minute appointment is they live close to the site.
“We have very little no-shows, but in the event that we do have a no-show, if we have someone that’s on the schedule that’s relatively close that we can call to come in, we will do that. But we plan to have zero waste,” Pullin says.
The state has said that it is launching a call center on Monday to help senior citizens who are struggling to make appointments online.
“A big reason…we were doing the call center is overwhelmingly for seniors, particularly seniors are not on the internet,” Murphy said.
The call center will not start taking calls until Monday, Jan. 25 at 8 a.m. The number to call is 855-568-0545.