New York To Sunbelt State Tourists: Stay Home

With coronavirus infection rates soaring in the Sunbelt, the governors of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey are teaming up to slap a 14-day quarantine on travelers from states where the deadly virus is spiking.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced the travel advisory on Wednesday (June 24) at a joint press conference.

The quarantine will go into effect at midnight and will cover all visitors from a range of states “with significant community spread of COVID,” the governors wrote in a statement posted on Twitter.

At the news conference, Cuomo called out several states with surging infection rates whose residents would be included in the quarantine should they travel to the Tri-State area, including Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas.

Florida has been of particular concern, with the Sunshine State setting a dubious new record, reporting on Wednesday (June 24) 5,511 new cases of coronavirus, beating the last high-water mark of 4,409 reached over the weekend.

In determining which residents of which states will be included in the quarantine, officials in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut say they will look to the seven-day rolling average of infections per 100,000 residents.

For tourists and other out-of-state visitors caught violating the quarantine, the fines could range from $2,000 for a first offense up to $10,000 if infection or harm can be traced back to the quarantine violator, Cuomo told reporters.

While short of a travel ban, the 14-day quarantine is likely to put more pressure on the already reeling tourism sector in the Tri-State region, where businesses have been slowly reopening as infection rates steadily decline.

New Jersey opened its beaches on Memorial Day weekend, while New York City began reopening earlier this month, letting nonessential manufacturing and construction workers return to their jobs.