New York, 2 other states to quarantine visitors from COVID-19 hotspots

Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has stated that New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will start implementing a mandatory quarantine on visitors coming from US states that currently report significant community spread of COVID-19.

Governor Cuomo, in a joint conference with his two other counterparts said, “We’ve worked very hard to get the viral transmission rate down and we don’t want to see it go up again because people are travelling into the state and bringing it with them.”

He continued that “This quarantine applies to any person coming from a state with a positive COVID-19 test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or a state with a 10 percent or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.”

According to him, the states that were above the rate mentioned are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas.

The travel advisory will be effective from midnight Wednesday, and the three states will keep updates on which state’s rates have surpassed the parameters.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy also said that the quarantine is “the common-sense thing to do and the responsible thing to do”.

He added that “No region in the country has paid a bigger price with a loss of brothers and sisters (as we did) and the last thing we need to do now is to subject our folks to another round.”

The state will do publicity on social media and reach out to travel agencies to inform any potential visitor to the region with the travel advisory, said Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont through a video link.

“This step to inform travelers from states with hot spots to self-isolate is meant to protect our residents and maintain our incredible public health progress,” Governor Murphy said.

As many regions of the country are experiencing a significant spike in COVID-19 infections, the three northeastern states, previously the hardest-hit nationwide, are now leading the country in terms of response to the pandemic with low positivity rates, increased testing capacity and contact tracing.

The positive test rates of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are 1.0 per cent, 1.6 per cent and 1.4 per cent, respectively, all deemed low-risk states, according to Covid Act Now, a US website tracking coronavirus data and risk level across the country.