After reporting 1,036 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, New Jersey’s seven-day rolling average is more than high enough to earn a spot on the 14-day quarantine advisory list the state shares with New York and Connecticut.
Everyone admits that.
But New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo also admitted what everyone else knows to be true: Enforcing such a quarantine would be next to impossible. That’s why New Jersey (and Connecticut) will not be added to the list this week.
“There is no practical way to quarantine New York from New Jersey and Connecticut,” he told reporters in a conference call. “There are just too many interchanges, there are too many interconnections, there are too many people who live in one place and work in the other. It would have a disastrous effect on the economy.”
States are added to the quarantine list if they hit a threshold of averaging 10 or more new cases per day per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period. For New Jersey, that’s anything over 8.8. In the past week, New Jersey’s average has been 10.3.
All officials in New Jersey (and New York) can do is discourage travel the best they can.
Murphy said it Monday at his COVID-19 briefing; Cuomo said it Tuesday.
“My advice is to not travel,” Murphy said.
