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From NJ Spotlight

As families gathered across the state for Thanksgiving, the holiday brought little let-up in the worrisome public health numbers for New Jersey, with new COVID infections reported again topping 4,500 and hospitalizations staying close to 3,000.  Statewide, 39 deaths were reported, down from the 50 fatalities reported the day before. The rate of transmission rate ticked down to 1.21. Hospitalizations saw their first drop — however slight — in more than three weeks. Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted: “This Thanksgiving, please stay safe. Avoid large gatherings. Wear a mask. Social distance. Wash your hands.” Murphy yesterday announced that travelers to and from all states except New Jersey’s close neighbors — New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Connecticut — are now being asked to quarantine for 14 days. The pronouncement is a break from the state’s previous travel advisories for individual states, dating back to when many states and locations had much worse COVID-19 statistics than the Garden State. Murphy also repeated his earlier discouragement of all interstate travel that is not essential. Amtrak officials predicted their passenger load this weekend would be 20% of what’s normal for the holiday. For a report on how rail passengers were faring, see NJ Spotlight News. The state Department of Labor and Workforce Development yesterday reported another drop in the number of New Jerseyans who filed new unemployment claims the week before, a sixth straight week of decline. Initial claims filed last week were 12,192, down from 12,986 the week before, or roughly 6%.1.8 million workers have applied for unemployment benefits of all sorts in the state since mid-March, and $19 billion has been paid, from state and federal sources. Unemployment numbers for the nation, meanwhile, were headed in the opposition direction, with 778,000 new claims filed last week, up by 30,000. Try our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics, FREE for a full month