By Dave Goldiner
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced New York state will impose restrictions on people traveling from states where the coronavirus pandemic is spiking including Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Texas and Utah.
Joined by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, Cuomo declared that anyone coming from states with high infection rates will be ordered to self-quarantine for two weeks.
“It’s only for the simple reason that we worked very hard to lower the infection rate and we want to keep it down,” Cuomo said. “People could bring the infection with them.”
Calling the stringent rules “common sense,” Cuomo said travelers from any state with a positive test rate of 10% or more than 10 cases per 100,000 people will be subject to the order. States will be judged on seven-day rolling averages and will be added or dropped from the list as conditions change.
He said New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will come up with their own methods for enforcing the new rule, which goes into effect at midnight.
“You look at these states and you see arrows pointed straight up,” Cuomo said.
The move is a dramatic turnaround for New York area, which has itself been subject of travel restrictions by other states, notably Florida.
At the height of the coronavirus outbreak in New York in late March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered travelers from the tristate area to quarantine.
That order that is still in place even though New York now has a much lower infection and illness rates than the Sunshine State.
The two neighboring state governors agreed with Cuomo on the travel restrictions.
“We’ve been to hell and back,” Murphy said. “The last thing we need is to subject our people to another round.”
“We reluctantly came to the conclusion that this is what we’ve got to do to make sure that our regions stay safe,” Lamont added.
Cuomo said the rules will apply to anyone who sets foot in the states in question, including New Yorkers who travel there for vacation and return home.
He conceded that the restrictions would be mostly enforced on the “honor system.” But he warned that anyone violating the order may be subject to fines and mandatory quarantine orders.
Cuomo suggested that police who pull over drivers of cars “with Florida license plates” might investigate whether the travelers are obeying the rules. Or he said co-workers might snitch on colleagues if they discover they have recently visited one of the states on the list.
He dismissed comparisons to the restrictions some governors imposed on New Yorkers, which he railed against at the time.
“It’s just common sense and it’s the spirit of community,” he said. “We’ll help you any way we can and we’ve been helpful in reaching out to every state across the nation, but we don’t want to see the infection rate increase here, after what we’ve gone through.”
Cuomo, who recently ended his daily televised coronavirus updates, said New York state remains on track to keep reopening.
He said just 18 people died of COVID-19 in the past day and about 1,000 are hospitalized. Positive test rates remain around 1%, which is considered a fairly safe level.
Even as it ebbs in once-devastated New York and New Jersey, the pandemic is spreading like wildfire in the South and West, including in many states that reopened early and rapidly.
Florida, Texas and Arizona have all experienced several days of record coronavirus reported cases and positive test rates.
Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Congress Tuesday that it may be only a matter of time before the death rates start spiking in those hard-hit states.
Most businesses are open as usual in those states and Republican governors have expressed extreme reluctance to impose new restrictions after President Donald Trump pushed for the reopening to continue regardless of the toll.
