Cape May County residents are being warned to be careful about certain travel destinations after the State has issued travel advisories for more than a dozen states. There are currently 16 states that New Jersey is advising people to quarantine for 14 days if traveling from those destinations. The advisory is the same for people traveling by car, plane, or bus.

The states on the list currently include Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah. The list is updated weekly and will include states that have a positive COVID-19 test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents or have a 10% or higher positivity rate over a seven-day rolling average.

“We want to warn our residents, particular our elderly residents, to be careful about travel to these impacted states,” said Cape May County Freeholder Director Gerald M. Thornton. “Not only are you expected to quarantine for two weeks, but we don’t want to see our higher risk population potentially expose themselves to this disease.”

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy noted during his press conference on Monday that several outbreaks in the State have been directly tracked back to travel to known COVID-19 hotspots. Cape May County’s year-round population of 65 years of age and older is roughly 25%. It has been shown that the virus is much more deadly when contracted by older individuals.

“Our New Jersey residents did a great job to get the COVID-19 outbreak under control in this State,” said Thornton. “We hope our residents continue to practice safety and consider whether travel is safe before going.”