Thirty-nine ShopRite locations are offering the COVID-19 vaccine to health care workers, as the private sector rivals the sluggish ability of New Jersey’s statewide inoculation efforts.

ShopRite officials said on Monday that the 39 pharmacies received their initial shipments of the two-dose Moderna vaccine from the federal government and will be administering them to “individuals at highest risk of exposure,” primarily health care workers.

The 39 sites are located across North, Central and South Jersey.

“We are excited to be part of the initial stages of this unprecedented public health campaign as we begin vaccinating healthcare workers who are on the front lines in the COVID-19 pandemic,” reads a Monday statement from Jeffrey Mondelli, vice president of Pharmacy, Health & Beauty at Wakefern Food Corp, which handles supply chain and merchandising for ShopRite.

As of Monday, the state administered just over 100,000 of the 400,000 COVID-19 Pfizer and Moderna doses it has been allotted, according to New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli.

Roughly 70% of the 265,000 doses received in December had not been administered, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

State health officials faulted a lack of staffing, and the arrival of the Moderna doses shortly before the holidays, but expect the pace of inoculations to rapidly increase over the next week.

Some people held off on getting the vaccine for fear of short-term side effects that might crop up during the holiday season, according to Persichilli.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, echoed similar sentiments about the optimism of a dramatically ramped up vaccination rollout within the next month.

Doses are being sent to 200 vaccination sites, Persichilli said. Two of the six vaccination mega-sites planned for the state are opening this Friday – Rowan College in Gloucester County and Rockaway Townsquare in Morris County – each with a capacity of 1,000 people a week.

“We want to make sure that within 24-48 hours, that no vaccine is left on the shelf,” she said during a COVID-19 press briefing in Trenton on Monday.

Murphy announced on Monday that a University Hospital emergency room nurse was the first New Jerseyan to receive her second dose of the vaccine.

Health care workers and long-term care residents are in the first priority group, followed by frontline essential workers, senior citizens and those with preexisting medical conditions.

No timeline exists for when the general public will receive the vaccine, beyond the late spring or early summer.

Public health officials said that for the state to reach herd immunity, 70% of the adult population should be vaccinated within a 6-month window, meaning by April or May.

The vaccination process is a key component of getting the COVID-19 pandemic under control, and lifting the myriad of business restrictions put in place to halt the spread of the virus, which has entered a second wave both in New Jersey and across the nation.