All New Jersey residents 16 or older will be eligible for Covid-19 vaccination beginning on April 19, Gov. Philip D. Murphy said on Monday. It is an announcement that heeds President Biden’s call for states to speed up their timelines for all adults to be eligible, as most other states already have.
In Maryland, those 16 or older are eligible to get a shot on Tuesday at state mass vaccination sites, Gov. Larry Hogan said on Monday. On April 12, he said, all Maryland residents 16 or older will be eligible at the other vaccine providers in the state.
Mayor Muriel Bowser of the District of Columbia joined the group of leaders expanding vaccine eligibility, tweeting on Monday that all Washington, D.C. residents 16 or older will be eligible on April 19.
That leaves Oregon and Hawaii as the only states yet to announce eligibility for all adults before May 1.
The announcements come as the pace of vaccinations across the country has been steadily increasing. As of Monday, an average of more than three million people are being vaccinated each day in the United States, and about 107.5 million people have received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to a New York Times database.
But even as the rollout of vaccinations continues to pick up pace, federal health officials and public health experts have been warning that the country could face a possible fourth surge in coronavirus cases.
Last week, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pleaded with Americans to “hold on a little while longer.”
