N.J. administers its first COVID-19 vaccine dose to University Hospital nurse

It was a birthday present Maritza Beniquez won’t soon forget.

On Tuesday morning — 286 days after the state reported its first case — Beniquez, an emergency room nurse at University Hospital in Newark, became the first person in New Jersey to receive a vaccine for the coronavirus, other than clinical trials.

“Thank you, God!” a beaming Beniquez said just after receiving the shot in her right arm at 8:10 a.m. during a ceremony at the hospital, coincidentally on her 56th birthday. “I couldn’t wait for this moment to hit New Jersey.”

”This is the best birthday present ever,” she said as people around her applauded. “I can see that light at the end of the tunnel.”

Beniquez was the first of dozens of healthcare workers Tuesday who received New Jersey’s first round of COVID-19 vaccines, marking a crucial step toward defeating a virus that has killed more than 17,000 New Jerseyans, crippled the economy, and revamped everyday life for millions of residents.

“I barely felt the needle,” Beniquez said. “I had to check it went it. ... There was no pain. I feel great.”

Gov. Phil Murphy was on hand for both Beniquez’s vaccination and a handful of others at University Hospital’s Vaccine Clinic at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

“This is a day we’ve been waiting almost a year for,” Murphy said at a news conference afterwards. “It was an incredible thrill to witness these first vaccinations. We know this is not the end, but we know we are witnessing at least the beginning of the end.”

Added state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli: “This is a historic day.”

Before receiving her shot, Beniquez was asked if she’d been exposed to COVID-19 in the last 14 days.

”Every day in that emergency room,” she said.

Beniquez, a mother of three and a grandmother of two, has been an ER nurse for five years at University Hospital in the state’s largest city. Thus, she’s had a first-hand view of the devastation the pandemic has caused since March.

“Our ER is busy on a good day,” she said. “When COVID came, it was the worst of our days. It was our worst nightmare. It was just wave after wave of critically ill patients coming in, with no end in sight. It was like watching a tornado or a hurricane cause that sort of devastation in the field — but instead of it being buildings it was our own people, our Black and Latino communities.”

Officials note that Newark has been disproportionally slammed by the virus, especially among Latino and Black residents. More than 2,000 residents in the city have died from complications related to COVID-19 — the most of any municipality in the state.

”I’m happy that in another month and a half, I won’t have to be afraid to go into a room anymore,“ Beniquez said. “I won’t have to be afraid to perform chest compressions or be present when they’re intubating a patient.”

”I don’t want to be afraid anymore, and I don’t want to have that risk of taking it home to my own family and my own friends,” she added.

In all, 80 healthcare workers were slated to receive their first dose of Pfizer’s vaccine Tuesday at University Hospital. All recipients will receive their second dose of the two-dose vaccine a few weeks after their first, officials said.

Workers at five other New Jersey hospitals were also sat to receive doses Tuesday: Hackensack Meridian Health in Hackensack, Robert Wood Johnson in New Brunswick, AtlantiCare Regional in Atlantic City, Morristown Medical Center, and Cooper in Camden. Forty-seven more of the state’s 71 hospitals will get doses by the end of the week.

Longterm care residents in the state are poised to receive vaccines in the coming weeks, as well. A broader rollout for the general public is expected by April or May.

Officials hope to get 70% of New Jersey’s adult population vaccinated — a lofty goal considering some polls showing some people do not want to take it.

A number of other states started vaccinating patients with Pfizer’s vaccine — the first approved by the federal government — on Monday.

Murphy stressed that he and health officials are confident in the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.

Both the governor and Persichilli, the state health commissioner, said they plan to get vaccinated but not until after healthcare workers.

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New Jersey will receive 76,050 doses of the Pfizer vaccine by the end of the week, with about 54,000 going to hospitals and 20,000 to longterm care facilities, officials said. The state will receive another 86,000 next week and will get a third batch before the end of December, officials said.

The federal government is also expected to approve another COVID-19 vaccine by Moderna in the coming days, with New Jersey possibly receiving its first shipment — about 154,000 doses — early next week, officials said.

Murphy has warned residents that the arrival of a vaccine does not mean life will go back to normal immediately. Officials expect cases, hospitalizations, and deaths to continue to be an issue as the vaccine gets rolled out.

”No one should be mistaken we are still in for several hard months,” the governor said. “I think the next few weeks will be very, very tough.”

Beniquez, who is Latina, said she understands why some people — especially minorities — are worried about whether the vaccine is safe.

“I understand their fears, I do,” she said. “But I’m here to say to my community, to my people, to my Latinos, to my Blacks, to just everyone around the world: This vaccine is safe. I wouldn’t take it if it wasn’t safe. I have a family, too. I am just like you.”

Four other healthcare workers received vaccines at University Hospital during Murphy’s visit Tuesday morning: Robert Johnson, dean of the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School; Justin Sambol, senior associate dean for clinical affairs at the Medical School; Yvelisse Covington, a medical office assistant at the hospital; and Charles Farmer, an emergency room doctor at the Medical School.