NY, NJ, & CT To Quarantine Visitors From COVID-19 Hotspot States
New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut announce 14-day quarantine for any visitors coming from coronavirus hotspot areas
New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut will now collectively enforce a two-week quarantine period on anyone traveling to the region from one of the states experiencing a surge in new coronavirus cases. In a joint press conference on Wednesday, June 24, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced the new travel restriction in an attempt to keep the coronavirus pandemic in the Northeast region under control.
“The Northeast region has taken this seriously and that’s allowed us, as a region, to power through and get out positivity rates very low,” Lamont said during the press conference. “But we’re not an island. As we look at the rest of the country, we’ve seen not just spikes, but community spread.”
According to the travel advisory, the impacted states are those “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,” though the list of states subject to the quarantine will be updated regularly as coronavirus cases rise and fall across the U.S.
Currently, the nine “coronavirus hotspot” states that are subject to the 14-day travel quarantine include Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah, and Texas. “We welcome visitors but only if they self-quarantine from highly infectious states,” Lamont added. Relatedly, South Carolina is also facing another restriction as United Airlines just announced that it will “temporarily suspend service” to Myrtle Beach “due to demand conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The quarantine will begin tonight, June 24, 2020, at midnight and this basically means that if you travel from Florida to New York tomorrow, you will be subject to a 14-day quarantine upon arrival in New York.
In Connecticut, the 14-day quarantine will be voluntary and you will not be fined if you violate the order, however, Lamont said that “if we find that’s not working, if we find that people are abusing that, we’ll consider some stricter measures for enforcement.”
However, if you fail to self-isolate for 14 days after entering New York, you will be hit with a fine that Governor Cuomo says can range anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 dollars. “If you’re violating a quarantine, you can be subject to a judicial order and mandatory quarantine,” Cuomo said. “You could have to pay the costs of quarantine. There are also fines that can go along with violating the quarantine.”
Cuomo stated that all lodging facilities in New York will be made aware of the new quarantine and there will be signs at the airport and on the highway reminding travelers to quarantine. Cuomo added that if you aren’t following the quarantine in New York, you could be found by hotel clerks or police pulling over motorists to enforce the order. New Jersey’s governor has not yet announced how he will enforce the order in the Garden State.
Other states like Vermont have quietly enacted quarantine rules for travelers and I would not be shocked if more states and airlines begin to follow suit as the country struggles to contain the coronavirus.
