New Jersey has fully vaccinated 4.7 million people, a goal it met two weeks early, Gov. Murphy says

New Jersey met its goal of fully vaccinating more than 4.7 million people who live, work and study in the state about two weeks before its original target date of June 30, Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday.

The milestone comes after an aggressive vaccination campaign that included door-knocking and incentives for residents of the state, such as free beer and wine, free passes to state parks and even dinner with Murphy and his wife.

The state has also surpassed President Joe Biden’s goal of getting 70% of adults vaccinated with at least one dose before the Fourth of July. New Jersey has vaccinated about 77% of its adults with at least one dose, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

“Because of the millions of you who stepped forward to protect yourselves, your families and our communities today we are proud to announce that we have now exceeded our initial goal, and with 12 days to go before our self-appointed deadline,” Murphy said Friday at a press briefing.

The outbreak in New Jersey, which peaked in January at a seven-day average of more than 6,000 new cases a day, has since subsided to a daily average of around 260 cases per day over the past week. New Jersey has recorded more than 1 million Covid cases and 26,000 Covid deaths since the start of data collection.

Covid deaths in the state peaked in April 2020 with a seven-day average of 345 deaths per day. The number has since fallen to an average of 6 deaths per day.

The state previously defied CDC recommendations to allow vaccinated individuals to not wear a mask indoors, but it adopted the CDC guidelines two weeks later.