New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are requiring visitors traveling from states with high COVID-19 infection rates to quarantine for at least 14 days, the states’ governors announced on Wednesday.
The joint travel advisory will go into effect on Wednesday at midnight.
According to CBS New York, the infection rate formula will be 10 per 100,000 on a seven-day rolling average or 10 percent of the total population positive on a seven-day rolling average. As of Wednesday, states that are over the threshold include Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas.
However, the list of states will change as infection rates change.
“There were no states that were handed a worse hand if you will when this first started. No one else had to accomplish as much as we had to accomplish in such a short period of time. No one else had to bend the curve as much as we had to bend the curve,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“We now have to make sure the rate continues to drop. We also have to make sure the virus doesn’t come in on a plane, again.”
NY, NJ and CT will continually update and publish on their respective websites a list of states to which the new advisory applies.
As of today, the list of states includes: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah & Washington. https://t.co/do5hy6UyUY
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) June 24, 2020
Violators of the travel advisory could face stiff fines, including $2,000 for the first violation, $5,000 for the second and up to $10,000 if they cause harm by skirting the mandatory quarantine.
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut aren’t the only states still requiring some visitors to self-isolate for at least two weeks upon arrival.