New York‘s tri-state area has announced a quarantine policy affecting states with higher coronavirus infection rates, to begin at 11.59pm local time on Wednesday.
Governor Andrew Cuomo made the travel advisory announcement in partnership with Connecticut‘s Ned Lamont and New Jersey‘s Phil Murphy. All three states are currently showing a decline in Covid-19 cases.
The new rule requires people coming from states with higher infection rates to enter a 14-day self-quarantine. It currently applies to people coming from nine states: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Utah, Washington, and Texas.
States where at least 10 per cent of every 100,000 coronavirus tests come back positive will be added to the list.
“It’s only for the simple reason that we worked very hard to get the viral transmission go down and we don’t want to see it go up because people go into the region and they can literally bring the infection with them,” Mr Cuomo said.
Enforcement will vary. In New York, it will largely be the traveller’s duty to self-isolate after arriving from a state on the list. If they failed to do so and were caught then they would face a fine and be forced into mandatory quarantine, Mr Cuomo said.
States including Texas and Florida previously issued their own travel advisories against New York and the surrounding area because of Covid-19. But now the situation is reversed with New York, previously the country’s infection epicentre, posting the lowest coronavirus infection and death toll numbers.
“This is right about where the lowest numbers have ever been and again, that’s more great news and again, we don’t want to see these numbers reverse. The numbers of lives lost under three-day average, again, is just about as low as it’s ever been. All of the numbers are good. What we’re doing works,” Mr Cuomo said.
He also announced that 17 people had died from the coronavirus on Tuesday, a new daily low after Monday saw 27 deaths.
Measures taken to control Covid-19 in New York state have been among the strictest in the US. Mr Cuomo said he felt “vindicated” by what the numbers were showing.
“Now the proof is in the pudding because we’re seeing it all across the board. What New York is doing is counter to what you see across the nation. They are going up and we are going down,” he added. Currently, 1.1 per cent of every 100,000 coronavirus tests come back positive in New York state.
It was also announced that parts of New York would be able to enter into Phase Four of its lockdown easing, which will allow museums, higher education, and professional sports to resume operation with limitations. Religious gatherings would also now be allowed to have a capacity of 33 per cent, up from the current 25 per cent.
New York City, though, only entered into Phase Two this week, which allowed outdoor dining services and retail shows to open with limited capacity.
