NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday that all travelers from outside the New York metro area will have quarantine and undergo mandatory coronavirus testing as cases spike across the country.
The governor said New York will require all inbound travelers show a negative COVID-19 test from three days or less before they arrive.
They will also have to self-quarantine for a week but can end the quarantine after four days if they test negative a second time.
Cuomo did not explain how the testing and quarantine policy might be enforced. Previous rules were not widely enforced.
The rules would not apply to people arriving from states that border New York, like New Jersey and Connecticut.
The new rules replace the old regulations that required travelers from states with high or rising positive rates of COVID-19 to quarantine. But virtually the entire nation has now exceeded those metrics as the pandemic spreads.
"The list started small and got longer and longer and longer and longer. So now it's all inclusive," Cuomo said.
The governor portrayed the shift as a reflection of the Empire State's relative success in containing COVID-19.
New York is No. 3 in the nation in lowest positive test rate, behind rural Maine and Vermont.
"New Yorkers should be very proud of the job they're doing," he said. "To be third in the nation is very good."
Cuomo said about 136,000 coronavirus tests were conducted in the state Friday, with a positive rate of 1.49%.
Eight New Yorkers died of the deadly virus and 1,121 were hospitalized Friday.
