NJ Expands Coronavirus Travel Quarantine Again

NEW JERSEY – New Jersey on Tuesday added four more states to its travel advisory – and removed one – amid a resurgence of coronavirus outbreaks across the country.

Delaware was removed from the list. So if you're going south, you won't have to find a circuitous route in order to comply with the expanded quarantine order. But you may have issues with traveling anywhere else in the country (see list of states below).

Murphy said Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio and Wisconsin now meet the state's metrics to qualify for the advisory. A total of 22 states are now included in the advisory, which "demands" travelers to quarantine for 14 days.

Gov. Phil Murphy, however, said he will not follow New York's lead and consider fining people if they don't fill out paperwork after traveling from a high-risk state. He said New Jersey's travel advisory is voluntary, although he is "demanding" that people follow the quarantine rules.

"We'll do it our own way," Murphy told Good Morning America (see below).

The update comes as New Jersey has largely contained the outbreak, even though the Garden State is still debating what to do about reopening schools in the fall. Murphy says he plans to reopen them, but all that could change if New Jersey's cases spike up again. Read more: NJ Coronavirus, Reopen Updates: Here's What You Need To Know

New Jersey has had some recent local outbreaks, but Murphy said some of them were connected to out-of-state travel.

The quarantine applies to any person arriving from a state with a positive coronavirus test rate higher than 10 residents per 100,000 over a seven-day rolling average, or a state with a 10 percent or higher positive rate over a seven-day rolling average.

“We must remain vigilant and committed to our collective effort of beating COVID-19 and reducing the rate of transmission throughout New Jersey,” said Murphy. “In order to continue moving forward with New Jersey’s restart and recovery process, I strongly urge individuals arriving from these 22 states to self-quarantine and proactively get a COVID-19 test to prevent hotspots from flaring up across our state.”

Here are the states:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Arizona
• California
• Florida
• Georgia
• Iowa
• Idaho
• Kansas
• Louisiana
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• New Mexico
• North Carolina
• Nevada
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Wisconsin

Travelers and those residents who are returning from impacted states should self-quarantine at their home, hotel or other temporary lodging, Murphy. That includes people who left New Jersey, visited one of the states and then returned.

People should leave the place of self-quarantine only to seek medical care/treatment or to obtain food and other essential items.

Travelers and residents returning from impacted states typically will not need to check in with public health officials, unless otherwise they are involved in contact tracing efforts or required to do so by their employer or any other federal, state or local law or order.

New Jersey Coronavirus Updates: Don't miss local and statewide announcements about novel coronavirus precautions. Sign up for Patch alerts and daily newsletters.