Hoboken Opens Its Own Coronavirus Vaccination Site

HOBOKEN, NJ —Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla and Dr. Raj Brahmbhatt of Riverside Medical Group announced Monday that the city and Riverside have begun offering COVID-19 vaccinations in an uptown medical office. While they will first be offered only to healthcare workers residing in Hoboken and Hudson County, the office will offer the vaccines to others after that.

On Monday at 12 p.m., Riverside began offering vaccines provided by the State of New Jersey at Riverside’s adult medicine office at 1111 Hudson St.

The vaccines will go first to workers who fall into the 1A category identified by the state. Workers in that category are defined as “paid and unpaid persons serving in health care settings who have the potential for direct or indirect exposure to patients or infectious materials and long-term care residents and staff." Healthcare workers must bring proof of classification. (See more details about 1A qualifications below.)

After the initial phase of vaccinating healthcare workers in the 1A category, Riverside and Hoboken anticipate working with the State of New Jersey and the New Jersey Department of Health to "utilize public facilities in Hoboken to administer the Moderna vaccine for expanded populations," the city said.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, including the Moderna vaccine, are a new type of vaccine that doesn't include the weakened virus, but rather, teaches human cells to make a protein that triggers the immune response (read more about that here).

More than 333,000 Americans have died of the virus as of Monday. A tenth of the American coronavirus deaths this year have occurred in the last two weeks.

The county of Hudson opened the first countywide vaccination center in the state this past Wednesday, vaccinating health care and funeral home workers first. Read more here.

Essex County opened a center on Saturday.

Hoboken's numbers, and who gets vaccinated

"Certain Riverside locations have been approved by the New Jersey Department of Health to administer the vaccine in accordance with the specifications and guidelines issued by the state," the city said.

Riverside is a group of adult, pediatric, and specialty medical offices affiliated with Hackensack University Health Network.

All Hoboken and Hudson County healthcare workers in the 1A category are invited to schedule an appointment to receive the vaccine in Hoboken by calling Riverside at 201-942-9314 between 12 and 5 p.m. Monday, and between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays going forward, starting Tuesday.

Hoboken, a mile-square city across the river from Manhattan, was one of the first cities in the region to begin closing facilities when the virus began spreading in the U.S. The city also had one of the first outdoor testing locations with rapid testing. By October, that location, run by the city and Riverside, had administered 10,000 tests.

Thirty-three Hoboken residents have died from the virus since March. Find out more statistics here.

“I’m thrilled Riverside has opened up a COVID-19 vaccination site in Hoboken,” said Mayor Bhalla. “Hoboken is committed to ensuring Riverside can administer as many vaccines as possible to our courageous healthcare workers. We look forward to expanding this program with Riverside and our partners to vaccinate as many people, as efficiently as possible in the weeks and months to come.”

“We at Riverside Medical Group are proud to be one of the first medical providers in New Jersey to provide healthcare workers the vaccine we’ve all been waiting for,” said Dr. Brahmbhatt. “Riverside began the COVID-19 pandemic by opening one of the East Coast’s first public, rapid COVID-19 testing sites in Hoboken.”

Other locations

Hoboken and Hudson County residents falling into the 1A category who would like to receive the Moderna vaccine at Riverside Medical Group’s other New Jersey locations, please call 201-863-3346 between 9 am and 5 pm, Monday through Friday.

For a list of Riverside’s locations in New Jersey, please visit: https://www.riversidemedgroup.com/adult-medicine-locations/.

More information

Who are “healthcare personnel” in Phase 1A?

Healthcare personnel are paid and unpaid persons serving in health care settings who have the potential for direct or indirect exposure to patients or infectious materials.

This includes any type of worker within a healthcare setting. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Licensed healthcare professionals like doctors, nurses, pharmacists and dentists
• Staff like receptionists, janitors, clergy, mortuary services, laboratory technicians
• Consultants, per diem, and contractors who are not directly employed by the facility
• Unpaid workers like health professional students, trainees, volunteers and essential caregivers
• Community health workers, doulas, and public health professionals like Medical Reserve Corps
• Personnel with variable venues like EMS, paramedics, funeral staff, and autopsy workers
• Other paid or unpaid people who work in a healthcare setting, who may have direct or indirect contact with infectious persons or materials, and who cannot work from home.

Who are “unpaid” health workers?

Persons who work within a healthcare setting, but are not paid. These include, but are not limited to health professional students, trainees, volunteers and essential caregivers.

What are “healthcare settings” in Phase 1A?

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Acute, pediatric, and behavioral health hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers
• Health facilities like rehabilitation facilities, psychiatric facilities and Federally Qualified Health Centers
• Clinic-based settings like urgent care clinics, dialysis centers and family planning sites
• Long-term care settings like nursing homes, assisted living facilities, group homes, and others
• Occupational-based healthcare settings like health clinics within workplaces, shelters, jails, colleges and universities, and K-12 schools
• Community-based healthcare settings like PACE and Adult Living Community Nursing
• Home-based settings like hospice, home care, and visiting nurse services
• Office-based healthcare settings like physician and dental offices
• Public health settings like health departments, LINCS agencies, harm reduction centers and medical marijuana programs
• Retail, independent and institutional pharmacies
• Other settings where healthcare is provided

Other Hoboken coronavirus news

• Hoboken Mayor Bhalla said this past Tuesday in a Nixle alert that there are currently 31 coronavirus patients being treated in Hoboken University Medical Center, of which nine are Hoboken residents. This is up from 24 cases during the first week in December.
• Hoboken lost two residents in December to the virus, after not having lost a resident to it since May.
• The Hoboken schools will be remote for the first week in January after winter break ends. Students must get a test upon returning.

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