New York To Mandate 14-Day Quarantine For Travelers From States With ‘Significant Community Spread Of COVID-19

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will impose a 14-day quarantine on travelers from states that are experiencing significant community spread of coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday.

“We worked very hard to get the viral transmission rate down. We don’t want to see it go up because a lot of people come into this region and they can literally bring the infection with them,” Cuomo said during a joint press conference with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont.

Cuomo said that the mandatory quarantine will be subjected to travelers from states that exceed a certain number of coronavirus infections per 100,000 residents on a seven-day rolling average, or if 10% of the state’s total population is infected on a seven-day rolling average.

“As of today, the states that are above that level are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah, Texas,” Cuomo said. “That’s as of today. The states themselves can change as the infection rate changes and we will update daily what states are above that infection rate.”

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Coronavirus cases are on the rise in 27 states across the country as younger people are increasingly becoming infected with the virus.

Various localities in New York have entered phase 3 of reopening as of Wednesday. The state was the global epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, but has been on a steady downturn in new cases and fatalities since peaking at 800 coronavirus deaths on April 14.

There were 17 coronavirus deaths in New York on Tuesday.

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“We had the highest numbers in the country, and if you look at where we are now we did a full 180 degrees,” Cuomo said. “We went from the highest cases, the highest viral transmission rate, to some of the lowest rates in the country. No one else had to accomplish as much as we had to accomplish in such a short period of time. No one else had to bend the curve as much as we had to bend the curve.”

“We now have to make sure the rate continues to drop,” he said.

While New York has seen a dramatic decrease in coronavirus cases and fatalities, Cuomo has been unable to shake criticism from conservatives for his state’s order on March 25 directing nursing homes to accept hospital patients who had tested positive for coronavirus. Critics say the order led to more deaths inside New York nursing homes.

Cuomo has repeatedly blamed the federal government when asked if he takes responsibility for the order and subsequent deaths, however, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Seema Verma said in May that New York’s nursing home order was not in line with guidance at the time from the federal agency.