This week the State of New Jersey announced that on April 19th, all New Jerseyans age 16 and over will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations. This news comes as NJ’s vaccination program continues to make progress. About 74% of those 65 - 79 and 70% of those 80 and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. As of yesterday, 5,141,870 total doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in NJ and 2,030,971 New Jerseyans are now fully vaccinated.

The NJ Department of Health has also updated its travel and quarantine guidelines to align with the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. NJ is no longer advising fully vaccinated individuals who travel domestically to self-quarantine or get tested after traveling. Also, fully vaccinated travelers do not need to get tested before leaving the United States unless it is required by their destination. The federal government requires fully vaccinated travelers coming to the US from abroad to have a negative COVID-19 viral test within three days of traveling or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 in the past three months before they board a flight to the US.

On Wednesday, the NJDOH reported that 827 individuals have tested positive for variants of SARS-CoV-2. 806 of these reported cases are the UK variant B.1.1.7, which has been found in every county in our state. The CDC is still learning how effective the COVID-19 vaccines are against variants of the virus. For more information on this topic, please follow this link to the CDC website.

Have a good weekend and stay safe.

Sarah Neibart

Mayor, Mendham Township