President Trump backed down from issuing a quarantine of New York and the surrounding area to stop the spread of the coronavirus in places he has described as “hot spots.”
Facing strong resistance from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who said a quarantine would be a “federal declaration of war” on the states, the president said instead that he has asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a “strong” travel advisory.
“On the recommendation of the White House CoronaVirus Task Force, and upon consultation with the Governor’s [sic] of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, I have asked the @CDCgov to issue a strong Travel Advisory, to be administered by the Governors, in consultation with the Federal Government. A quarantine will not be necessary,” Trump said Saturday evening in a pair of tweets. “Full details will be released by CDC tonight. Thank you!”
….Federal Government. A quarantine will not be necessary. Full details will be released by CDC tonight. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020
The CDC issued a Domestic Travel Advisory later in the evening which stressed the governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have full discretion to implement it.
“Due to extensive community transmission of COVID -19 in the area, CDC urges residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately,” the CDC said, adding that the advisory “does not apply to employees of critical infrastructure industries, including but not limited to trucking, public health professionals, financial services, and food supply.”
The critical infrastructure list was released by the Homeland Security Department on Saturday, and includes the gun industry.
Earlier in the day, Trump told reporters as he was departing for Norfolk, Virginia, he was considering “enforceable” two-week, travel-based restrictions.
This was after Trump spoke with Cuomo on the phone, who then said, “I didn’t speak to him about any quarantine.”
The governor later told CNN such a move, which he described as a “declaration of war on states,” may not be legal. “If you start walling off areas all across the country, it would just be totally bizarre, counterproductive, anti-American, antisocial,” he said.
“I’ve sued the federal government many times over the past few years … I don’t believe it’s going to come to that on this,” he added.
Governors and mayors have the broadest authority to isolate or quarantine people, though citizens cannot be deprived of “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Most of the country is under some sort of “shelter in place” order during the coronavirus pandemic. Any quarantine order by the federal government would likely invite a legal challenge.
In a statement responding to Trump’s consideration of a quarantine, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said his state has called on residents to stay at home, and “if interstate travel is absolutely necessary, our state has directed travelers to self-quarantine to prevent against further transmission of the virus.”
Lamont added that he had been in “close communication” with Govs. Cuomo and Phil Murphy of New Jersey and said he looked forward to speaking with the president about “any further enforcement actions, because confusion leads to panic.”
In his interview with CNN, Cuomo also took issue with Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, who instructed state police on Friday to stop vehicles with New York license plates and to enforce a 14-day quarantine of any persons found to have entered her state from New York, saying he could sue the neighboring state if they don’t roll back the “reactionary” policy.
Raimondo said the move was necessary because New York City and the surrounding areas are a “hot zone and the infection rate is skyrocketing.”
The White House Coronavirus Task Force on Tuesday urged anyone who has been in New York recently to quarantine themselves for two weeks from the time they left the state.
At a Saturday afternoon send-off of the USNS Comfort in Norfolk, Virginia, Trump said the United States is “at war with an invisible enemy” and touted the Navy hospital ship’s ability to provide medical relief for New York City, which has been grappling with a growing coronavirus outbreak that has sickened thousands.
The ship is expected to arrive at Pier 90 in Manhattan on Monday. New York City has been one of the hardest-hit places in the country, with around 30,000 COVID-19 infections and more than 500 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
As of Saturday evening, New York state had 672 deaths associated with the coronavirus, far exceeding other states in the union. More than 122,600 confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported across the U.S.
