New Jersey will release as many as 1,000 people from its jails in what is believed to be the nation’s broadest effort to address the risks of the highly contagious coronavirus spreading among the incarcerated.

New Jersey’s chief justice, Stuart Rabner, signed an order late Sunday authorizing the release of inmates serving certain types of sentences in county jails as the number of coronavirus cases in detention centers nationwide continues to mount.

The order applies to inmates jailed for probation violations as well as to those convicted in municipal courts or sentenced for low-level crimes in Superior Court. The release of inmates will begin Tuesday morning.

No other state is thought to have taken such sweeping action to reduce its jail population in response to the coronavirus, but other cities, including New York, Cleveland and Tulsa, Okla., have moved to release sick or vulnerable detainees.