New Jersey expands coronavirus vaccine eligibility

New Jersey residents who are 55 and older can start getting vaccinated on April 5, Gov. Phil Murphy announced, a move he said was possible due to increases in doses expected in the coming weeks.

Murphy also said the state will meet President Joe Biden’s goal of opening eligibility to all residents by May 1.

“We want everyone to have a date they can look forward to,” he said after touring a vaccination site in Union in North Jersey, where he chatted with child care workers as they got shots.

Others who will qualify for shots next month include those 16 and older who have intellectual or developmental disabilities, higher education educators and staffers, and communication support workers, including engineers and members of the media.

Real estate, building, and home service workers will also be permitted to get shots, along with sanitation workers and bank tellers, accountants and other financial industry employees. Laundry service workers, utility workers, and librarians round out the “1C” category that Murphy greenlit Friday.

Murphy, who is 63, also said that once he is eligible, he will make an appointment for a vaccine using the same scheduling systems other New Jerseyans have used.

Murphy has set a goal of fully vaccinating 4.7 million people, or 70% of the adult population, by summer. More than 1.3 million New Jerseyans are fully vaccinated as of this week, according to state data, while more than 2.5 million have had at least one shot.

“We will not only get there, but I know we can exceed that goal,” Murphy said.

The state is administering an average of several hundred thousand shots a week, and Murphy said the federal allocation is expected to jump by about 20% next week with a delivery of 494,430 doses.

“And I think it only goes up from there,” Murphy said.

The state added 4,339 new coronavirus cases and 28 deaths Friday. Cases have been spiking in recent weeks and hospitalizations creeping up, a trend that health officials said is due to the new variants spreading throughout the state.

Pennsylvania remains in Phase 1A, which includes residents 65 and older, health care personnel, educators and school staff, and people 16 and older with certain medical conditions. Gov. Tom Wolf said Thursday that Pennsylvania is on track to meet the March 31 deadline for scheduling all 1A appointments.

In Delaware, all residents 50 and older are eligible to receive a vaccine, and Gov. John Carney has said the state will open shots to everyone by May 1.

More developments on the virus from Friday:

Pennsylvania added over 4,900 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the most in one day since the end of January, as the virus continues to surge again across the commonwealth.

The Department of Health reported 4,927 new cases, and is now averaging 3,780 infections a day over the last seven day, according to an Inquirer analysis. That’s an increase of 53% over the last two weeks.

As of Thursday, Pennsylvania had 238 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the United Kingdom, according to data from the CDC, up from 198 on Wednesday and 168 on Monday. The variant can spread more easily than the original strain of coronavirus, and there are undoubtedly more cases in the community than are currently reported due to the time it takes for genetic sequencing, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Friday.

Philadelphia is launching a $1.5 million six-month media campaign to combat hesitancy around the coronavirus vaccine, Public Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said Friday. The new campaign will be called “Vax up, Philly,” mirroring the city’s ongoing “Mask up, Philly,” messaging.

Rather than focusing on the potential negative consequences of not getting the vaccine and getting infected with the virus, the campaign will focus on positive images of what life will be like once a significant portion of the city is inoculated, such as getting to hug loved ones, go to church, and eat meals with friends.

Philadelphia will provide additional vaccine doses to seven community organizations and hospitals that have proposed ways to reach underserved and difficult-to-reach populations, Farley announced Friday.

The providers, which will receive about 1,000 to 5,000 doses per week, are the Albert Einstein Medical Center, the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, myDoc Urgent Care, Sunray Drugs, Temple University Hospital, Temple University College of Public Health, and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

The partnerships are the result of a request for proposals the city issued to help it ameliorate persistent racial disparities in vaccine distribution in Philadelphia, with white residents receiving doses at a rate far greater than their share of the population. The call for proposals remains open, and additional groups can still make submissions, Farley said.

A second Philadelphia School District school building is closing temporarily because of a COVID-19 outbreak. Gideon Elementary, in North Philadelphia, will close through April 11 because of “multiple positive cases” of the coronavirus, Principal Shaunielle Taylor said in a letter to families. Gideon reopened for in-person instruction to children in prekindergarten through second grade on March 8.

It’s the second Philadelphia school to close because of COVID-19 cases; Mayfair Elementary is also temporarily shut.

Staff writers Sean Collins Walsh and Kristen A. Graham contributed to this article.