TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey added Hawaii and South Dakota, along with the Virgin Islands, to its COVID-19 travel advisory list on Tuesday, while dropping a handful of other states.
Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted that Alaska, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington were off the list, which requires traveler from those states to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in New Jersey.
New Jersey, New York and Connecticut agreed to the travel advisory as a way to prevent another escalation in coronavirus cases in the region, which saw spikes from March through May before cases began to fall. The advisory covers states with a positive test rate above 10 per 100,000 residents over a seven-day rolling average, or states with a 10% or higher positivity rate over the same period.
Murphy on Tuesday also reported there were nearly 500 new positive cases, putting the overall caseload at 185,475.
Since Monday, Murphy said there were 14 new confirmed COVID-19 deaths, with seven coming this month, five from July and two from April. The state’s death toll stands at 14,037.
The rate of transmission, which measures how many people an infected person passes the virus to, fell overnight from 0.98 to 0.94.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms. Older adults and people with existing health problems are at higher risk of more severe illness or death.
Murphy said the advisory covers: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, the Virgin Islands and Wisconsin.
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