NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- New York state will conduct "random checks" as part of its plan to enforce a 14-day quarantine for travelers from states with high COVID-19 infection rates, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.
Anyone who travels to the tristate — or returns to the area — from nine states with high infection rates will have to self-quarantine for 14 days, Cuomo and the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut announced Wednesday.
In an interview with CNN on Thursday morning, Cuomo elaborated on the announcement, explaining that the state would carry out "random checks."
"If you fly into New York, we'll have your name. We'll know where you're supposed to be staying. There will be random checks," he said. "You get pulled over by a police officer and he looks at where your residence (is), and says, 'How long have you been here?'"
Asked by CNN's Alysin Camerota what the checks would look like, Cuomo said the state "know(s) people who fly in."
"And we'll have inspectors who are randomly looking at the names on the list and calling to follow up to make sure you're quarantining. And if you're not, then you're in violation of the law, and you will have a mandatory quarantine, and you'll be fined," he said.
"I think most people are going to honor it," he added. "You know, they understand why we're doing this."
The travel advisory, he noted, is like "any other law," and there will be people who violate it without getting caught.
"You know, you can speed in your car, and if you don't get caught, you're fine," he said. "You can… drink too much and you can drive home, and if you don't get caught, you're fine."
New York will be fining travelers who don't comply with the new advisory, he said. The state will impose a $2,000 fine for the first violation of the advisory, a $5,000 for the second violation and $10,000 for any violation that causes "harm."
New Jersey and Connecticut haven't yet said they will impose fines for violations, though Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont on Wednesday said he was "thinking about it."
Cuomo on Thursday also announced a "new milestone" for New York state, as the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations fell below 1,000 for the first time since March 18.
Other states, meanwhile, have seen surges in new cases this week. Florida, for one, reported a record 5,511 new cases on Wednesday.
During his CNN appearance, Cuomo accused Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other governors who reopened their states quickly of being more concerned about politics than they were about preventing the virus' spread.
"I say to them all, 'Look at the numbers.' You played politics with this virus and you lost," he said. "You told the people of your state, and you told the people of this country, White House, 'Don't worry about it. Just open up, go about your business. This is all Democratic hyperbole.' Oh really?"
"Now you see 27 states with the numbers going up, you see the death projections going up, you see the economy going down. It was never politics, it was always science, and they were in denial, and denial is not a life strategy," he added. "You see now, they're saying, 'Well, don't worry, it's not really that the virus is going up, just the testing numbers are going up.' I don't even know what that means, mathematically."
"Your hospital beds are filling up. You know what that means when your hospital beds fill up? It means more people are getting sick," he went on to say. "That's what's happening."
