The number of states from which people will be asked to quarantine for 14 days if they travel into New Jersey grew this week. It is now at 16, it was announced at the daily COVID-19 briefing.
While the request is strongly urged, the state does not have the ability to enforce it.
The rising number, however, is an indicator of how COVID-19 is growing in other states. Here are the 16:
- Alabama;
- Arkansas;
- Arizona;
- California;
- Florida;
- Georgia;
- Iowa;
- Idaho;
- Louisiana;
- Mississippi;
- North Carolina;
- Nevada;
- South Carolina;
- Tennessee;
- Texas;
- Utah.
Despite the growing number of states requiring a quarantine, Murphy said he still felt the state can be a tourist destination.
“Tourism is still a big part of our state,” he said. “If you can come in from a non-hotspot place.
“We still think we do tourism responsibly.”
Other items from Tuesday’s briefing:
Hospital numbers
The hospital metrics continue to look good. Here is how they stand, as of 10 p.m. Monday:
- In hospital: 992 (second straight day under 1,000);
- In ICU: 211;
- On ventilators: 174 (third straight day under 200);
- In/Out: 44/50;
- Rate of transmission: 0.88 (this is number of cases each new case creates — and it was up, a slight concern);
- Positivity rate: 1.82% (from June 26).
Murphy also said there were 461 additional COVID-19 cases, raising the state total to 171,667. And 47 more fatalities, pushing the state total to 13,181.
Defunding the police
State Police Superintendent Col. Pat Callahan gave his thoughts on the idea of “defunding” the police — which means a shift some of the duties — and money — assigned to police to other agencies.
“I think, when that first discussion came about, defunding the police sounded like less law enforcement and perhaps categorizing calls,” he said. “My response is that, as a profession, we need to be social workers, we need to be pastors, we need to be coaches. I think it’s a profession that, when somebody picks up the phone and calls 911, that we are asked to solve people’s problems from a stray cat in their house to a 17-year-old wrapped around a tree in their Toyota.
“So, when I hear that, if that means shifting to other programs, whether that’s with youth programs or community partnerships, I’m for that, but I am a bit cautious of categorizing certain calls and maybe not have law enforcement go to a domestic or maybe not have law enforcement go to meet with a marginalized citizen. I think we can be all of that.”
The final word
Murphy on decision to pause resumption of indoor dining:
We try our best to get this as right as possible. This weekend, there was a lot of disturbing data nationally that we saw; overwhelmingly, it was coming from indoor activity, and, again, it’s the combination of indoors, lacking ventilation, sedentary, close proximity. That’s a lethal combination.
“Think of the other side — why would I not want restaurants to be open, other than we’re trying to save lives.”
