President Donald Trump has approved New Jersey’s coronavirus disaster declaration, the White House announced Thursday.
New Jersey joins California, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Washington in declaring pandemic a “major disaster.” (RELATED: This Map Shows How Many Have Died From COVID-19 In Each State)
FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus. (Photo by ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images)
The declaration allows New Jersey to receive both individual and public assistance funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA named Robert Little the Federal Coordinating Officer for the state.
The president previously mobilized the National Guard to carry out approved coronavirus missions in California, New York, and Washington, the three states hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, and said that FEMA would foot the cost of all coronavirus missions. At the time, Gaynor stressed that the action was not equivalent to “martial law.” (RELATED: A Comprehensive Timeline Of The Novel Coronavirus)
In particular, New York, just a stone’s throw from New Jersey, has seen drastically higher infection and mortality rates than the rest of the nation, and the trend has spread to the remainder of the tri-state area.