Ocean County Opens Third-Round Coronavirus Vaccine Dose for Some Residents

First Lady Tammy Murphy visits the Henry J. Austin Health Center vaccination site in Trenton on January 7, 2020. (Edwin J. Torres for the NJ Governor’s Office)

The Ocean County Health Department announced Wednesday that it will begin opening appointments for residents to receive a third coronavirus vaccine dose if they are suffering from a number of high-risk medical conditions.

Ocean County primarily distributed the Moderna mRNA vaccine against the Covid-19 virus over the winter and spring. The third dose is authorized for individuals with “moderately to severely compromised immune systems” and can be received at all OCHD vaccine clinic locations. A list of specific qualifying medical conditions appears below.

The department holds vaccination clinics at Ocean County College from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Localized vaccine clinics are also being planned.

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The CDC has recommended that people who are moderately to severely immunocompromised receive an additional dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine at least 28 days after a second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. This includes people who have:

• Active treatment for solid tumor and hematologic malignancies,
• Receipt of a solid-organ transplant and taking immunosuppressive therapy,
• Receipt of CAR-T-cell or hematopoietic stem cell transplant(within 2 years of transplantation or taking immunosuppression therapy),
• Moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency(such as Di George syndrome, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome),
• Advanced or untreated HIV infection, and/or
• Active treatment with high-dose corticosteroids (~20mgprednisoneor equivalent per day), alkylating agents, antimetabolites, transplant-related immunosuppressive drugs, cancer chemotherapeutic agents classified as severely immunosuppressive, tumor-necrosis(TNF) blockers, and other biologic agents that are immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory.

“People should talk to their healthcare provider about their medical condition, and whether getting an additional dose is appropriate for them,” the department said in an announcement.

For those who received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the CDC advises that there is not enough data at this time to determine whether people with a compromised immune system will also have an improved antibody response following an additional dose of the same vaccine. It also does not recommend additional doses or booster shots for any other population.

Proof of an individuals’ immunocompromised status is not required to make an appointment. The OCHD is recommending people bring their current COVID-19 vaccination record card identifying which 2-dose vaccine was administered prior and the dates of administration.

Vaccine locations and appointments can be reviewed at this website: https://novelhealth.ai/practice/ocean-county-health-department-254182