Coronavirus: NY, NJ, CT to require travelers from states with high COVID-19 rates to quarantine

The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced Wednesday that they’ve issued a joint travel advisory directing people who visit from states with “significant spread of COVID” to quarantine for 14 days.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said states that have more than 10 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people or who have 10% or more of their total populations testing positive on a seven-day rolling average would fall under the advisory.

As of Wednesday, Cuomo identified the states affected as Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas. Later Wednesday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said his state was erroneously included in that list.

At a news conference Wednesday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said the measure was a “commonsense step” toward keeping the coronavirus contained in the region. Connecticut Gov. Phil Lamont noted that some areas are seeing spikes in the number of younger people between the ages of 18 and 35 who are contracting COVID-19.

“Right now, we’re seeing places within some of these states where you have a positivity rate of 20, 30, 40 percent,” Lamont said.

Cuomo said Wednesday that the measure was “only for the simple reason that we worked very hard to get the viral transmission rate down” in the area.

“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. It wouldn’t be malicious or malevolent, but it would still be real.”

The travel advisory will go into effect at midnight.

Cox Media Group