New York will require travelers from states with high rates of coronavirus infections to quarantine for 14 days, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced this morning.
The new restriction, which takes effect midnight tonight, will apply to anyone traveling from states that meet criteria for high rates of current infection, including New York residents returning home from states that meet those criteria.
“We worked very hard to get the viral transmission rate to go down,” Cuomo said. “We don’t want to see it go up because a lot of people come into this region and they could literally bring the infection with them.”
The quarantine will apply to states with a positive testing rate of 10% and states with more than 10 cases per 100,000 residents.
Nine states currently have outbreaks meeting those criteria: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas.
Health officials will monitor the status of outbreaks across the nation and update this list accordingly, Cuomo said.
A similar restriction will take effect in New Jersey and Connecticut, whose governors joined Cuomo during this morning’s announcement.
“Hopefully we’re on the other side of this mountain,” Cuomo said, “and we’ll continue to see the numbers go down and we’ll continue to see the economic activity go up.”
Previously the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, New York State is now seeing less than 30 people dying of COVID-19 every day, a drastic decline from the 1,025 deaths reported at the state’s peak on April 17.
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