Posted on 07/17/2020 7:17:10 PM PDT by lightman
People flying into New Jersey will be asked to fill out an electronic survey starting Monday as the Garden State continues to call for travelers arriving from 22 states that qualify as coronavirus hotspots to voluntarily self-quarantine for 14 days.
Airlines will announce both the quarantine advisory and information about the survey before travelers depart and while they’re on their flight, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said Friday as she announced the new initiative.
The survey will ask people information about where they’re traveling from, their residence, and their destination. The information will then be sent to county health departments, who will them call the traveler to request them to self-quarantine and explain where they can be tested for COVID-19.
Travelers can access it by texting “NJ Travel” to 898211, visiting covid19.nj.gov/njtravel, or scanning a QR code on posters at airports.
“It is vital that individuals traveling from heavily impacted states cooperate so we can avoid creating community outbreaks in our state,” Persichilli said during the state’s latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton.
She stressed that the quarantine is voluntary, but officials are “relying on personal accountability” for people to comply.
EFFECTIVE MONDAY, 7/20, DOH will launch an electronic survey to collect info on out-of-state travelers that arrive at NJ's airports.
The survey will be accessible by: 1️⃣Texting NJTRAVEL to 898211 2️⃣Visiting: https://t.co/DwZpxZwBPo 3️⃣Scanning a QR code on airport posters pic.twitter.com/p9gV2koY7B — NJDOH (@NJDeptofHealth) July 17, 2020
In an effort to prevent outbreaks, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut issued a joint advisory last month for travelers from hotspots — including residents returning home from a trip — to self-quarantine for two weeks and seek a coronavirus test. The list now includes 22 states as new cases surge across the country.
The quarantine applies to anyone arriving from a state with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents or a state with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average. People traveling for business are exempted.
New York has threatened fines of $2,000 for people flying into the state who do not fill out a survey.
Gov. Phil Murphy has said New Jersey won’t institute a fine, though he said Persichill has the power to “go after” and “sanction” people who do not comply with the quarantine. He has not clarified what that means.
“Something will happen to you,” Murphy said during a radio interview Wednesday. “If you’re a real knucklehead and you come in and you flagrantly violate this, the commissioner of health in New Jersey has the teeth to go after you. And she won’t hesitate to do that.”
New Jersey has seen its coronavirus figures drop significantly and stabilize after months of lockdown orders. Meanwhile, numerous other states are seeing surges.
But officials on Friday warned that the Garden State’s rate of transmission is once again above the key benchmark of 1. That means, on average, every newly infected resident is passing the virus to at least one other person.
The goal is to keep the rate below 1. The state’s latest rate is 1.1, officials said Friday.
Officials said the rate is rising for a number of reasons, including indoor parties, flareups at longterm care facilities, and people bringing the virus from other states.
Murphy said Friday the state remains “largely in a holding pattern” when it comes to lifting more restrictions, including allowing more indoor activities and businesses to reopen.
“We cannot ignore the world around us,” he said. “A lot of this is on us. But a lot of this relies on fires dying elsewhere in the country.”
New Jersey on Friday reported 20 more deaths attributed to COVID-19 and 202 more positive tests.
The state has now reported 15,684 deaths — 13,710 confirmed and 1,974 considered probable — with 176,551 known cases since its first case was announced March 4.
First question: are you here to peacefully loot and riot if so disregard the rest
Who would anyone voluntarily fly INTO NJ? Anyone?
A connecting flight to somewhere else?
I say this is a NJ resident.
Newark International is one of the NYC metro airports...used by people throughout the NE region for international flights.
If that statement doesn’t convince you that NJ is not a full-throated, always-on police state, than you are un-teachable. Here is a Governor threatening Citizens with force of the State (not law, btw) to harm and punish for non-compliance with rules HE makes up along the way to full tyrannical government.
Our forefathers would have been dispatching with the likes of these fools years ago. The sheep in this country are sleeping and the slaughter is already well underway. Murphy would rather see you and I dead or begging for salvation from himself - Phil Murphy, The god of NJ.
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