(CNN)New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut issued a travel advisory Wednesday that requires people arriving from states with high coronavirus rates to quarantine for 14 days.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said the travel advisory applies to anyone coming from a state with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or a state with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.
"We have to make sure the virus doesn't come in on a plane," Cuomo said.
"We worked very hard to get the viral transmission rate down, and we don't want to see it go up," he added.
As of Wednesday, the advisory applies to Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah, and Texas. It begins tonight at midnight.
The announcement is a 180-degree flip from just a few months ago, when the tri-state area, and New York City, in particular, was the epicenter of the pandemic.
The 7-day moving average of new cases has declined in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
The 7-day moving average of new cases has declined in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
In late March, President Donald Trump considered placing the three states under a quarantine, Rhode Island police stopped vehicles with New York license plates, and Florida directed all travelers from the tri-state area to isolate or quarantine for two weeks.
Months of strict lockdown rules, widespread testing, and imperfect attempts at contact tracing have brought cases under control in the tri-state area and the region. New cases are on the decline this past week compared to the week before in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
But now, states in the South and West are seeing what Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, called a "disturbing surge" in cases.
As of Wednesday, 26 states reported an increase in cases in the past week compared to the week prior, and that increase has been particularly stark in heavily populated states like California, Texas, Florida, and Arizona.
How the restrictions will work
Each of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut will be responsible for its own enforcement of the quarantine. The states' health commissioners will pursue an aggressive public relations campaign at airports, highways, and other locations.
In New York, Cuomo said, those violating the quarantine could be subject to a judicial order and mandatory quarantine, and fines are $2,000 for the first violation, $5,000 for the second violation, and $10,000 if you cause harm.
Texas governor urges people to stay home as states report surges of new Covid-19 cases
Texas governor urges people to stay home as states report surges of new Covid-19 cases
Gov. Murphy of New Jersey said the advisory applies to everyone, including New Jerseyans returning home.
"This is not a polite recommendation, this is a strong advisory built on the back of the healthcare professionals," he said. "We are asking folks to take on a big amount of personal responsibility here, to do the right thing for themselves as well as for their families, communities, and the rest of us."
When asked about the possibility of fines, he said the health commissioner "has within her powers to directly address an individual who is non-compliant."
Gov. Lamont of Connecticut said the governors "reluctantly" decided to institute the travel advisory.
"The northeast region has taken this seriously," he said. "But we're not an island. And as we look around the rest of the country, you know, we have seen not just spikes, but we've seen real community spread."
He described the advisory as voluntary but considered it "urgent guidance."
Lack of national infrastructure
The interstate travel restrictions are just another consequence of the federal government's inability to create a robust national public health infrastructure. The lack of nationwide rules and effective supply chains has largely left each state on its own and had the effect of pitting them against each other.
Even now, 19 states have no requirements for residents to wear facemasks -- the simplest and cheapest layer of defense against a virus with no vaccine and no widely effective treatment.
Indeed, Gov. Cuomo has openly mocked other states that he said were acting politically rather than scientifically.
What's behind the surge of Covid-19 cases in Florida
What's behind the surge of Covid-19 cases in Florida
"New York went from one of the highest infection rates in the country to one of the lowest because we made decisions based on science -- not politics," he said Tuesday. "We're seeing in other states what happens when you just reopen with no regard for metrics or data. It's bad for public health and for the economy, and states that reopened in a rush are now seeing a boomerang."
As part of its phased reopening, New York required regions to meet certain metrics around testing, contact tracing, and hospital admissions and available beds. New York City, the final region to reopen, moved to the second phase of its reopening on Monday after seeing continued improvement in each metric.
Still, Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said no state has yet effectively reopened its economy safely.
"We have to figure out how to make that transition in a successful way, or every state that reopens, even those that have done a really good job at tamping this down, are going to see pretty dramatic rises and we're going to end up back to where we were," Besser said.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/24/us/new-york-coronavirus-travel-restriction/index.html
