New Jersey Senator Shares
Monmouth County Vaccination Results
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36 JUNE 2021 | TheJournalNJ.com
BY LORI DRAZ
New Jersey was unenviably at the center of the COVID-19 crisis; however,
Monmouth County was a leader in combating the crisis through
vaccinations and education.
New Jersey State Senator Declan O’Scanlon, Jr. (R-Monmouth) has
been aggressively working to make sure the vaccines are readily available
to county residents.
“The state’s vaccination effort got off to a slow, chaotic start. Locally, we
Central Jersey Community Health Centers (VNACJ-CHC), Hackensack Meridian
a state-leading effort,” said O’Scanlon. “The success has been dramatic. We
brought together and partnered with school boards and administrations and
local governments. When you add in the tremendous initiative run by Monmouth
County, you have a system that’s served our residents incredibly well.”
Those successes include vaccines for healthcare workers, teachers,
cancer patients, developmentally disabled, high-priority communities and
thousands in the vulnerable senior population.
“We did the math ourselves early on to know our target, then got about
bringing people together to hit it,” O’Scanlon said. “We helped bring school
administrations, boards and the NJEA together with the VNA Community
Health Center to provide vaccine access to virtually any teacher in Monmouth
County by the third week of March. We worked with Hackensack
Meridian and local municipal governments to provide access to senior
citizens. It really came together. The only thing that held us back from
even greater strides was supply.”
needed to project resource/vaccine dose needs to achieve the 70 percent
vaccination rate target by June.
“We needed to know just how many doses of the vaccine New Jersey
had to deliver each week, how that number translated to the county level,
and there’s also securing sites, arranging utilities, training administrative/
processing/health care staff,” he said. “The state didn’t provide these
critical numbers, so we did the math. Based on an intricate formula using
moved along) to deliver around 375,000 doses per week to reach our
goal, and Monmouth County needed to deliver about 25,200 doses per
Monmouth County including major hospital systems, community-based
clinics, independent pharmacy systems etc. and determined that target
was achievable. We then got about helping to make it happen.”
One impactful partnership is that of the VNACJ-CHC and Memorial
Sloan Kettering (MSK) who have collaborated to vaccinate New Jersey
cancer patients against COVID-19. VNACJ-CHC created a dedicated
scheduling portal for MSK patients. MSK staff members are working
with eligible patients to assist them in making appointments. MSK pa-
-
tion link that has been created especially for this program. All vaccine
appointments are held at VNACJ-CHC locations in Monmouth County.
“Great things happen when good people work together to solve
a problem in the spirit of service and cooperation,” O’Scanlon said.
“For the patients of Memorial Sloan Kettering, the threat of COVID-19
is life-threatening. I commend the leadership and employees of both
available to cancer patients.
“We’re also proud of our role in making it easier for our kids to
2,100 educators in less than a month, with the goal of safely bringing
students back into schools. Teachers and administrators have worked
hard and done their best to provide effective online and hybrid learning,
but these professionals are trained to provide their most compelling
instruction in the classrooms. Our children have been deprived of
so much opportunity over the past year. It was, and still is in some areas,
O’Scanlon joins many residents and businesses rejoicing over the
lessening of restrictions and is looking forward to a busy summer season.
If you or someone you know has special needs and needs help
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