Daniel J. Munoz//September 8, 2020//
Daniel J. Munoz//September 8, 2020//
New Jersey’s southern neighbor Delaware was once again added to a list of 35 states and territories where COVID-19 is raging, and from which travelers should self-quarantine for 14 days.
Another Mid-Atlantic state, Maryland, was also added back to the list, as was Ohio while West Virginia made the list for the first time, as New Jersey sees a lull in the spread of the virus.
Connecticut, New Jersey and New York initially unveiled the list in June as they aimed to stave off a nationwide rebound of the virus.
All three states were among the hardest hit by the pandemic in March and April. The self-quarantine applies to any state with a positive test rate of 10 per 100,000 residents or a positivity rate higher than 10 percent, both over a seven-day rolling average.
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands were removed from the list.
The four new states join Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.

“By practicing good citizenship and complying with our travel advisory, native New Jerseyans and visitors alike can help slow the spread of this virus and save lives,” Gov. Phil Murphy said in a Tuesday morning statement. “It remains critically important for anyone arriving to New Jersey from these 35 states and territories to get tested for COVID-19 and self-quarantine for 14 days.”
This past week, the rate of transmission – or how quickly the virus spreads – has steadily risen over 1, meaning that for every person who gets COVID-19, they spread it to at least one other person.
The positivity rate among COVID-19 tests has oscillated between 1.5 and 2 percent, both acceptable numbers according to the governor. They were, from Murphy’s point of view, enough to justify scaling back restrictions on indoor dining, theaters and gyms.
Gyms were allowed to operate at reduced capacity last week, and with a face covering requirement, as well as intense sanitization and other policies for extensive indoor ventilation, so that the virus would be purged from the facility. Indoor dining, indoor movie theaters and other performance venues followed suit just before Labor Day weekend, also with face covering and limited capacity protocols.
“We are able to take all these steps today because of the hard work millions of you have done to keep pushing down our positivity rate and our rate of transmission, and all the other health metrics we follow, to where we are comfortable and confident in taking them,” Murphy said last week.
“We will be watching very closely, and we will not tolerate any owners or managers – or diners, for that matter – who try to work around the rules.”
The state would not know for another 10 days whether the resumption of indoor dining has led to an increase in cases, the governor cautioned this morning.