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N.Y., Conn. And N.J. Add 8 More States To Quarantine List

Kathy Willens
/
AP
An arriving passenger wearing a face shield collects her luggage at LaGuardia Airport in New York last week. New York, Connecticut and New Jersey are asking visitors from states with high coronavirus infection rates to quarantine for 14 days.

Connecticut, New York and New Jersey have added eight more states to a travel advisory list for states with high levels of the coronavirus. Visitors from California, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada and Tennessee will now be required to self-quarantine for two weeks.

The new restrictions bring the total number of states included in the travel advisory to 16. Violators in New York could be fined up to $10,000. There are no legal consequences in Connecticut. 

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said he’s had discussions with the president of Jet Blue Airlines about ways to screen people before they board flights that come to Connecticut.

“The president said, look we are instituting a testing protocol, let's say down in Miami. So we know uninfected people, we know what their status is before they get on the plane. Would that be helpful for you in Connecticut? I said that would be very helpful if they could certify that.” 

Lamont said he’s also talking to other airlines that fly into Connecticut.

The states on the travel advisory list join eight others, including Texas and Florida, and all together represent nearly half of the nation’s total population.

All of the states have recorded 10 or more people infected with the virus for every 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or have a 10% or higher positivity rate over a 7-day period.

Meanwhile, the rate of the virus in New York State continues to be low. Thirteen people died on Monday, down from a high of around 800 deaths per day at the height of the pandemic in the state, and the infection rate is around 1%, which means the rate is holding steady.

“The good news is, our house is doing very well,” Governor Cuomo said, speaking on NY 1.“The bad news is the neighbor's home is on fire.”

The governor says New York went through 111 days of “hell” with thousands of deaths and economic shut down, and he does not want to have to “do the impossible” again.

Cuomo blames the federal government and the administration of President Donald Trump, who he says lacked a plan and refuse to admit that there’s a problem.

“The virus is raging all across the nation, and that’s because we have a federal government that just missed this,” Cuomo said. “They denied it from the first place. Let’s be honest.”  

The governor also says he’s deploying state police and state liquor authority agents to monitor outdoor eating and drinking at bars and restaurants in New York City, to determine whether people are behaving safely and if indoor dining can be permitted. There have been numerous reports of crowds congregating outside some bars and restaurants. Cuomo says he’ll decide Wednesday whether to allow indoor dining or not.

As WSHU Public Radio’s award-winning senior political reporter, Ebong Udoma draws on his extensive tenure to delve deep into state politics during a major election year.
Karen has covered state government and politics for New York State Public Radio, a network of 10 New York and Connecticut stations, since 1990. She is also a regular contributor to the statewide public television program about New York State government, New York Now. She appears on the reporter’s roundtable segment, and interviews newsmakers.
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