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New Jersey is fully lifting its pandemic-related travel restrictions and quarantine requirements, Gov. Phil Murphy announced on May 17.

These new rules go into effect immediately, after the quarantine requirements were dropped for fully vaccinated New Jerseyans. Those mirrored similar guidelines put out by the CDC that fully vaccinated people can freely travel across the nation without testing or self-quarantine.

“However, we do encourage everyone to continue to exercise common sense when traveling domestically and to follow all local health and safety protocols wherever you are traveling to,” the governor said during his May 17 COVID-19 daily briefing. “And if your goal is international travel, recognize that the COVID reality in many nations is much different than here, and adhere to the travel guidance and advisories posted by the United States Department of State.”

For most of 2020, the state required travelers from states with COVID-19 surges to self-quarantine for two weeks. With no penalties in place for failure to adhere to the quarantine, compliance was instead dependent on an honor system from out-of-state travelers.

In November, New Jersey said it would stop following the travel advisories once it and several neighboring states met their own threshold for imposing travel restrictions. The state then lowered the self-quarantine period in December from 14 to 10 days.

The updated federal guidance calls for people coming into the United States from abroad to take a COVID test within three days before they leave, or show that they’ve recovered from the virus within the past 90 days.

Monday’s move comes as the state gears up its reopening moves. On Wednesday, the state is formally rolling back percentage-based capacities and other restrictions on businesses such as restaurants, personal service businesses and retail, as well as the outdoor gathering limit cap. Instead of capacity restrictions, businesses will need to enforce 6-foot social distancing.

But mask requirements for most indoor settings will remain in effect for the foreseeable future, despite federal guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that fully vaccinated Americans, in most circumstances, do not have to wear face coverings nor practice social distancing in most indoor and outdoor settings.

Vaccination efforts have steadily progressed in the state, a key move to fully lifting COVID-19 restrictions on businesses and public gatherings.

Murphy’s goals are to fully vaccinate 4.7 million adults by June 30, and so far nearly 3.7 million state adults have been fully vaccinated. Over 8 million New Jerseyans have gotten at least one dose.

Now with Pfizer receiving federal approval to vaccinate people between 12 and 15 years of age, the state is rushing to get the shot into the arms of hundreds of thousands of people in this age group.

And daily cases and total hospitalizations have cratered in recent weeks, signaling that public health officials and health care executives have gotten the pandemic well under control.