Travelers to New York, Connecticut and New Jersey from states where there are flare-ups of the COVID-19 virus will have to put themselves into 14-day voluntary quarantines under new rules going into effect at midnight tonight.
The quarantine regulations were announced today in a joint news conference by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in New York with Govs. Phil Murphy of New Jersey and Ned Lamont of Connecticut participating remotely via video.
The quarantine applies to any person arriving from a state that has a positive test rate for the virus higher than 10% as calculated using a 7-day rolling average. As of today’s numbers, the quarantine requirement applies to travelers from Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas.
Connecticut, New Jersey and New York will continually update and publish on their state websites a list to which the quarantine applies. In addition, the three states plan to have messaging on highways, airports and social media. The three states will also ask hotels to communicate the 14-day quarantine to guests who have traveled from one of the impacted states.
“We don”™t want to see the infection rate here increase after what we”™ve gone through,” Cuomo said. “Each state will be responsible for the enforcement of that policy within their states.”
Cuomo said that in New York, travelers found to be violating the quarantine order would first be subject to a judicial order requiring them to comply. If they still failed to comply, they could face a $2,000 fine for the first offense, a $5,000 fine for a second offense and up to $10,000 for continued defiance of the quarantine requirement.
Lamont said, “Working together as a region has proven to be immensely successful as our respective states are leading the country when it comes to our response with low infection and positivity rates relative to increased testing capacity. We have made difficult decisions throughout this pandemic, but we have proven to make many of the right decisions. This step to inform travelers form states with hot spots to self-isolate is meant to protect our residents and maintain our incredible public health progress.”
Murphy said, “This is a smart thing to do. We have taken our people, these three states, through hell and back and the last thing we need to do right now is to subject our folks to another round. This virus is risky enough on its own in terms of the potential to flare back up so doing something as common sense as this is, to say to folks, ”˜listen, it”™s time for personal responsibility, if you”™ve been in a state that has a high infection rate, do the right thing.”™”
Cuomo said that when New York was being clobbered by the virus, the federal government wanted to impose a blockade on New York. A blockade would have prevented anyone from going into or traveling out of state, which would have gone far beyond requiring those exposed to the virus to be quarantined. Cuomo strongly opposed the idea and the government eventually dropped it.
Cuomo said that yesterday in New York state there were 17 deaths from the virus, five in nursing homes and 12 in hospitals. “This is right about where the lowest numbers have ever been,” Cuomo said.
The governor said that yesterday the state conducted 51,144 tests for the virus and 581 came back positive, resulting in a 1.1% infection rate. He said that hospitalizations stood at 1,071, the lowest number since March 19.
Cuomo reported that five regions of the state are on track to enter the fourth phase of the reopening plan on Friday. They are the Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, Central New York, Mohawk Valley and North Country regions. He said that under phase four regulations, religious gatherings can be conducted at up to 33% capacity, up from the previous 25%. Social gatherings of up to 50 people would also be permitted. He said that in New York City, more than 1 million riders used the subway system yesterday, the highest number since the COVID-19 crisis began.
Cuomo said that the potential impacts from reopening malls, movie theaters and gyms still are under study and he had nothing new to add regarding when those facilities would be allowed to resume normal operations. He said that officials are looking at what is happening in other states and noted that there are some reports that air conditioning may not be cleansing air of the virus and may just be recirculating it.
He said spring training for the Yankees and Mets will start July 1 in New York.
“This is a different moment in history. Government has to work now. This is not normal politics, political rhetoric. This is government actually having to perform a job. People expect government to work now,” Cuomo said. He said that local governments have an important role to play in monitoring the reopening process and ensuring that businesses comply with protocols.
According to statistics obtained from the state Department of Health this afternoon, there have been a total of 24,782 COVID-19 deaths in New York.
Deaths in Westchester now total 1,548, with 1,416 Westchester residents falling victim to the virus. The number of Rockland residents who died has not increased from the 506 recorded a week ago. The number of Putnam residents killed by the virus remains at 62. A total of 398 Orange County residents have died from the virus. There were a total of 159 deaths recorded in Dutchess County.
New York has had 389,666 people test positive for the virus. There now have been a cumulative total of 34,697 cases identified in Westchester, 13,534 in Rockland, 1,306 in Putnam, 10,669 in Orange and 4,158 in Dutchess.
And who’s enforcing this? And why isn’t Cuomo focused on trimming $20 Billion from the budget? Why isn’t he laying off thousands of state workers? Why are they imume?
This is the dumbest thing coming from Cuomo, with all the testing now available and not being used, why not test them instead?
Quarantining is so yesterday and he needs to get up to speed. Is Cuomo still sending positive patients into the nursing homes? That’s what we all want to know.