N.J. opens COVID-19 vaccine registration portal

The state has opened the COVID-19 vaccine portal at covid19.nj.gov/vaccine, but residents should be prepared to experience website delays and crashes as thousands of people attempt to register.

It can take several tries to be able to register. “Check back later” was the response we received about 30 times, and then when we were finally able to enter our personal information on a screen and click submit, we received an error message several times. Fortunately, when we returned to the previous page, the information we entered was still there and we didn’t need to add it again. Several readers reported similar issues.

After we registered, we were told we would be hearing back when it is time for our group to be vaccinated.

Currently, health care workers, emergency medical personnel, and long-term care residents and staff are being vaccinated in Group 1A. More than 100,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in New Jersey. Health care workers who were the first to receive doses in December began to receive their second doses of the vaccine on Monday.

Officials hope to vaccinate 70 percent of the state’s adult residents over the next six months. Officials have said the vaccine should be available for the general public by April or May.

The opening of the online vaccine portal comes as the state experienced its highest number of COVID-19 deaths since May. Officials said 138 more residents of New Jersey have died as a result of COVID-19 complications, bringing the state’s total number of COVID-19 related deaths to 19,382 people. Officials received positive COVID-19 test results for 5,400 residents on Tuesday. The state has recorded 499,636 positive PCR tests since the pandemic began. The state began reporting rapid antigen test results on Monday and calling them “probable” cases. The antigen test total rose to 51,783 on Tuesday.

As of Monday night, there were 3,702 COVID-19 patients in New Jersey hospitals, an increase of 69 people over the previous night. A total of 679 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care, and 481 of those patients were on ventilators.

A few screenshots from the registration process: