TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey surpassed more 1 million COVID-19 vaccinations on Monday, Gov. Phil Murphy said.
Murphy, a Democrat, said the 1,037,657 doses include both the first and second of two shots. While it marks a milestone, he said, the state is short of the number of vaccines it would need to meet demand.
New Jersey has administered just over 224,000 second of two shots, or about 2.5% of the population. That lags the rate of the country overall, which stands at 2.8%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Murphy has said he wants to complete administration of 70% of the state’s adult population within six months. It’s unclear whether the state will reach that goal, though.
The pace of vaccinations has picked up since it began in mid-December in New Jersey. The state took nearly 40 days to reach 500,000 vaccinations, but just 16 days to go from 500,000 doses to 1 million.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in New Jersey fell over the past two weeks from nearly 5,084 new cases a day on Jan. 24 to about 3,620 on Sunday.
Murphy reported 25 new deaths from the virus overnight, putting the overall toll at 19,824.
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