“The omicron tsunami has washed across our state,” the governor said Tuesday during the first public appearance of his second term. “We are no longer going to look past those who continue to put their colleagues … and those who are their responsibility in danger of COVID. That has to stop.”

Tom Bracken, the president and CEO of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, cautioned that any requirement “would cause some serious damage to certain companies because a lot of employees do not not want to be vaccinated or they would leave, and I think that was already happening.”

The requirements from New Jersey’s largest university are the latest among pandemic-related mandates and delayed openings that the state’s higher education institutions are implementing amid a surge of the omicron variant and holiday-related positive cases.

The news came the same day drugmaker Pfizer announced that a third dose booster shot can “neutralize” the new variant, which was first detected in South Africa and has been spreading rapidly.

Virtua Health announced the location will open next week in response to widening eligibility for boosters, but will serve anyone eligible, including those in need of a first shot.

“With the holidays approaching, we encourage all individuals who have received their COVID-19 vaccination to get a booster dose,” Gov. Phil Murphy and New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said in a Nov. 20 statement.

The mandate from the White House applies to companies with more than 100 employees; those that do not comply with the new OSHA rules could face fines of at least $14,000 for each violation.

Having pre-ordered 205,000 pediatric doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 inoculation, and with a sprawling county and local health care infrastructure in place, the governor assured the state would be able to rapidly activate its system for vaccinating children in this age group.

So far, only those who have received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will have to get another inoculation, and those employees have until Dec. 24 to do so.

If you received either of the two-dose shots through April, or the single-dose version by August, and are a senior, adult under 65 years of age with high-risk medical conditions, or someone who works in front-line industries, you're eligible for the additional jab.

Amid the Biden administration's plans to provide smaller doses of the Pfizer inoculation to the age group, New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said that the state's goal "is to make it as accessible and convenient as possible,” to get those shots into arms.

The governor had no estimate on how many workers the move would affect, but suggested that it would climb to the thousands over time.