Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order mandating that all Louisiana residents who enter the state of Texas to self-quarantine to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Louisiana has one of the largest COVID-19virus outbreaks in the United States outside of New York. In order to stop a larger outbreak of the coronavirus from occurring in Texas, Abbott requested that Louisiana residents seeking refuge in Texas self-isolate on Sunday. The order expands on a previous one that was limited to travelers from New Orleans.
“My prior executive order about travel from New Orleans covered air travel from New Orleans into the state of Texas. Now, I am updating that executive order to also include travel by road. Travel by road from any location in the state of Louisiana. Importantly, this executive order does not apply to travel related to commercial activity, military service, emergency response, health response, or critical infrastructure functions,” Abbot explained.
He continued, “This order will be enforced like the order that I issued previously about travel from New Orleans. It will be enforced by the Department of Public Safety at and near entry points from Louisiana.”
Texas has nine confirmed cases of the coronavirus per 100,000 people, which comes out to 2,552 cases total. Louisiana has 76 confirmed cases of the coronavirus per 100,000 people and 3,504 cases total.
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo signed an executive order on Saturday night, mandating that any traveler from outside the state self-quarantine. The order originally singled out New Yorkers, but she expanded the order to all travelers after being threatened with legal recourse from fellow Democrat, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Similarly, Rhode Island has three confirmed cases per 100,000 people, while New York has 305 confirmed cases per 100,000 people.
