New York is keeping is 14-day quarantine requirement in place for people coming to the state from other states deemed to be COVID-19 hot spots. That’s despite the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention altering its guidelines for travelers this week.
The CDC says travelers who contracted the virus, knowingly or otherwise, still can spread it for 14 days after exposure. But rather than recommending a self-quarantine itself, the federal agency now says to follow state, territorial, tribal or local requirements.
In New York, along with Connecticut and New Jersey, that means anyone coming from a hot spot state or territory still must quarantine for 14 days, with certain exceptions. New York state and New York City officials are also requiring travelers to register upon arrival or risk fines.
States and territories are added to the list when they either have a rolling seven-day average positive test rate of more than 10 per 100,000 residents or a rolling seven-day average positivity rate of 10 percent or higher.
On Tuesday, five states dropped off the tri-state area’s travel advisory list. That means visitors and area residents returning from Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Maryland and Montana no longer need to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival.
“While it’s good news that five states have been removed from the travel advisory, the list remains far too long as America continues to struggle with COVID-19,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. “New Yorkers should stay vigilant and be careful – wear a mask, socially distance, and be smart. This pandemic is not over.”
With Guam’s addition to the list, the advisory covers 28 states and three territories.
Also on Tuesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio visited a city sheriff’s department traveler checkpoint at the Bayonne Bridge. While the state had been requiring travelers to register at in-state airports, New York City established checkpoints at bridges, tunnels and other main entry points, like Penn Station, and the sheriff’s deputies will continue to run them for “the weeks to come,” the mayor said.
While New York City has seen a dramatic drop in the number of COIVID-19 cases, the mayor said that about a fifth of all positive cases have come from people who travel to a hot spot.
“This is a driving force in the level of infections we have right now,” de Blasio told reporters. “And we have seen in other parts of the world, that if the travel situation is not addressed dramatically and aggressively it becomes one of the biggest causes of spread. So we can’t let that happen in New York City.”
