Monday’s Essex County coronavirus vaccinations rescheduled

Because of an upcoming winter storm, appointments at Essex County's novel coronavirus vaccination sites originally scheduled for Monday, Feb. 1 will instead be on Sunday, Jan. 31.

The county offers four vaccination sites — including one open to Montclair residents, at the former Kmart building in West Orange.

Schedules will continue on Sunday as originally expected for Monday — all appointment times and hours will be the same. The county is asking anyone unable to make an appointment to contact 973-877-8456. The county schedules vaccinations through its own online portal.

In New Jersey's coronavirus vaccine rollout, people ages 65 and older, people 64 and under with high-risk medical conditions, first-responders and health care workers are eligible for vaccination.

Also Friday:

• Gov. Phil Murphy said New Jersey is now vaccinating about 20,000 people more each day than it is registering as new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.
• The governor further extended a ban on interstate indoor sports that had been scheduled to expire Sunday.
• Three more cases of a highly contagious coronavirus variant first seen in the United Kingdom have been identified in New Jersey since the governor's last update to press on Wednesday. That makes for 11 total, including two in Essex County. The variant is broadly thought to be more easily transmissible, but not more deadly, than the novel coronavirus that's been in New Jersey for nearly a year, though state officials stress they're learning as they go.
• Murphy said a "technical" issue caused double-bookings Thursday though the state's Vaccine Scheduling System — apparently mostly or all at the state's Gloucester County-based "mega-site." The governor said those affected Thursday would be contacted for rescheduling