[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, announced a tri-state travel restriction for states with coronavirus infection rates topping 10%.
Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas currently have numbers above that threshold, and will now require a 14-day self-quarantine for those traveling to New York, New Jersey or Connecticut.
The advisory goes into effect on June 25.
Cuomo who was joined remotely by Democratic Govs. Phil Murphy, of New Jersey, and Ned Lamont, of Connecticut, during the announcement, said the three have been discussing the preventative measure for more than a week.
“There were no states that were handed a worse hand, if you will, than our states,” Cuomo said. “We had the highest numbers to deal with in the country. We did a full 180 degrees. No one else had to bend the curve as much as we had to bend the curve.”
With nearly 400,00 cases and more than 30,000 deaths, New York, the nation’s epicenter for COVID-19—the illness caused by the coronavirus— now has one of the lowest infection rates in the country at 1.1%; hospitalizations statewide are also down to a low of 1,071. The state reported 17 deaths overnight from the virus on Wednesday, marking some of the lowest death tolls New York has seen since the pandemic was first identified in a city of New Rochelle cluster in early March.
But those positive indicators come against a concerning backdrop for public health officials as a continuing first wave of COVID-19 cases that are spiking in several states outside of the Northeast and Midwest regions. This week 29 states reported increases in positive cases believed to be due to a combination of relaxing social restrictions and an increase in testing capabilities.
“We now have to make sure the rate continues to drop, that’s what keeps me up at night,” Cuomo said. “We also have to make sure the virus hasn’t come in on a plane. We learned that lesson.”
The infection rates will be charted based on seven-day rolling averages and the list of hotspots could change as infection rates change. Cuomo said the list will be updated daily and each state will have to individually enforce the travel policy.
“It’s only for the simple reason that we worked very hard to get the viral transmission rate down, we don’t want to see it go up,” he said. “People could bring the infection with them.”
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