NEW YORK (WKBW) — New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was joined by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont Wednesay morning and a joint travel advisory was announced.
The governors announced anyone who enters NY, NJ or CT from a state with a high COVID-19 infection rate will be subject to a 14-day quarantine.
I am announcing with @GovMurphy and @GovNedLamont a joint travel advisory. All individuals traveling from states with significant community spread of COVID into NY, NJ, or CT must quarantine for 14 days.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) June 24, 2020
This travel advisory is effective midnight tonight.
Each state will be responsible for the enforcement of the policy within their state, according to Cuomo. Travelers coming to New York can be questioned at hotels or by police, per Cuomo.
"We have done a lot of good things together and hopefully we are on the other side of the mountain and we will continue to see the numbers go down and we will continue to see the economic activity go up," said Cuomo.
According to Cuomo, the infection rate formula will be 10 per 100,000 on seven day rolling average or 10 percent of the total population positive on a seven day rolling average.
A visitor to NY, NJ or CT from any state that has an infection rate above that would require 14-day quarantine.
"If you go to a hotel and a hotel clerk asks how come you are not in quarantine, you go to a business meeting and somebody says aren't you supposed to be in quarantine, you're stopped by a police officer who says you're driving a car from a Florida license, weren't you supposed to be a quarantine 14 days, any of those mechanisms you can be detected as violating your quarantine," said Cuomo.
AAA of Western and Central New York said people have already reached out wondering how this will affect their summer plans. Elizabeth Carey, Director of Public Relations for AAA WCNY, said there's one destination in particular that will impact many Western New Yorkers.
“Going down to Florida is the number one destination for summer bookings through AAA right now, Orlando’s number one," she said.
Carey said other vacation hot spots are on the list, including Arizona for its national parks. She said this is shaping up to be the summer of road trips, and for people looking to stay local the Finger Lakes and Thousand Islands are popular spots.
If you violate quarantine:
- You can be subject to a judicial order and mandatory quarantine
- There are also fines:
- $2,000 for the first issue of first violation
- $5,000 for the second
- up to $10,000 if you cause harm
As of June 24, the states that are above that level are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah, Texas.
The states will update daily which states are above that infection rate. This doesn't stop people from going in or coming out.
