Six of the state’s largest hospitals began administering the COVID-19 vaccination to health care personnel on Dec. 15 as local health officials make preparations to administer doses to the general public, in what will be one of the greatest national mobilization efforts since the Second World War.

University Hospital emergency room nurse Martiza Benique was the first New Jerseyan to get the vaccine, during a widely publicized event at the Newark-based hospital Tuesday.

Hundreds more health care personnel at the hospital will get the vaccine in the coming week, according to Shereef Elnahal, the hospital’s chief executive officer.

Six hospitals, including University Hospital, are getting part of the 76,000 Pfizer doses this week, according to New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli, who said Tuesday was a “historic day” because of the vaccination.

They are Hackensack University Medical Center in its namesake city, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City. Cooper University Hospital in Camden and Atlantic Health Health’s Morristown Medical Center, according to Persichilli.

Another 35 acute-care hospitals will be receiving Pfizer shipments in the next 24 to 48 hours, Gov. Phil Murphy said at an unrelated event Wednesday – and a total this week of 47 acute-care hospitals.

Eighteen other acute-care hospitals will receive the Moderna doses next week, in the very likely event they get emergency federal approval from the Food and Drug Administration by the weekend.

Health care workers and long-term care residents are part of the first group, known as “1a” that will receive the Pfizer and Moderna doses over the next several weeks. Both versions of the vaccine require separate doses roughly a month apart.

“As more vaccine shipments arrive – and we anticipate Moderna’s vaccine will also be approved for its emergency use, our vaccination program will become more robust over the coming weeks,” Murphy said on Tuesday.

HMH said it gave the vaccine to 170 medical workers and hospital officials. It received 7,000 doses, and over the next month will give them to health staff that directly interact with patients.

HMH also said it’s distributing the vaccine to several of its so-called “hubs” – Hackensack University Medical Center, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, JFK Medical Center and Ocean Medical Center. From there, doses will go to HMH’s other local hospitals.

AtlantiCare vaccinated 55 health care workers at their Atlantic City campus Tuesday. Cooper health vaccinated the first of its health care workers, having received roughly 950 doses. The plan is to inoculate over 8,000 hospital staff and officials in the coming weeks.

RWJ University Hospital said it vaccinated 10 employees yesterday, but declined to provide numbers on how many Pfizer vaccine doses it received.

In all these cases, vaccinations are voluntary, but hospital officials noted that a large majority of their health care workers plan to get vaccinated.

State health officials said the goal is to vaccinate 70% of the state’s adult population in the next six months, a much more ambitious goal in light of widespread skepticism of the virus. In any given year, only half of New Jersey adults would get a flu vaccine.

After medical workers and long-term care residents, the “1b” population, which includes essential workers, those above the age of 65 and those with pre-existing medical conditions will receive vaccines.

Most New Jerseyans would not likely get the vaccine until the late spring or early summer – April or May – and Murphy suggested that life in the state can resume a considerable semblance of normalcy by Memorial Day 2021.

Jersey City – the second largest city in New Jersey – is considering an emergency resolution at an upcoming city council meeting to set aside $2 million for six vaccine distribution sites across the city for its residents.

Hudson County emergency and health officials said they are setting up a vaccine distribution center next week out of Kearny, for non-hospital medical workers.

Those include “doctors and nurses within private practices, dentists, hygienists, community and public health workers, funeral directors, paid and unpaid Emergency Medical Technicians, and those working in labs with infectious material,” the county said in a Tuesday statement.

Montclair meanwhile said it would be hosting a Thursday town hall with HMH and local health officials to provide residents with an update on the state’s roll-out of the vaccine.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated on Dec. 16, 2020 at 2:45 p.m. to include RWJ University Hospital.