New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is moving to incrementally reopen his state's economy as its COVID-19 outbreak continues to show signs of slowing.

On Wednesday, Murphy announced nonessential businesses can reopen on Monday for curbside pick-up. Nonessential construction projects can also resume next week. The announcement came one day after Murphy announced a significant expansion of testing and contact tracing for New Jersey -- two key elements of any reopening strategy.

WNYC's Karen Yi told All Things Considered host Jami Floyd that while the number of positive cases and hospitalizations continue to trend down, the state's data continues to be sobering.

"New Jersey has a per-capita rate in terms of deaths, cases and hospitalizations that is actually higher when you compare it to other hard-hit states like New York, California and Connecticut," Yi said. "On the one hand, we're seeing data that is showing some improvement, and signs of this slowing. On the other hand we're seeing signs that this is far from over"