NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — New York on Tuesday added Arizona and Maryland to its travel advisory, but while New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania now qualify for the quarantine rule, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said restricting travel within the Tri-State area would be unrealistic.
The advisory requires people who have travel to New York from areas with significant community spread to quarantine for 14 days.
The quarantine applies to any person arriving from an area with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or an area with a 10 percent or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.
Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania now meet the criteria, but Cuomo said given the interconnected nature of the region, a quarantine on those states is not practically viable.
He is instead highly discouraging non-essential travel between these states.
"We are now in a situation where 43 states meet the criteria for our travel advisory. This is really a bizarre outcome, considering New York once had the highest infection rate," Cuomo said. "There is no practical way to quarantine New York from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut. There are just too many interchanges, interconnections, and people who live in one place and work in the other. It would have a disastrous effect on the economy, and remember while we're fighting this public health pandemic we're also fighting to open up the economy. However, to the extent travel between the states is not essential, it should be avoided."
New Jersey's COVID-19 rates have risen to the point where it qualifies for its own quarantine list.
Connecticut's numbers are also climbing.
"The Connecticut positivity rate is still a little below 2% and for New Jersey still a little below 3% but they do meet the metric of 10 cases per 100,000 over a seven-day rolling average. So for Connecticut it's a little over 11 and New Jersey is a little over 10 per 100,000. You can hit either of those to qualify for the travel quarantine," Beth Garvey, the governor's counsel, said.
Cuomo said the three states will continue to operate as one connected region.
He said he will work with Govs. Phil Murphy and Ned Lamont to lower infection rates in their states without closing up any borders.
"Our states have worked together successfully in combating this pandemic since the beginning and we'll continue to do so. The travel advisory was designed to keep our respective states safe, with the understanding that we are a connected region, dependent on each other when it comes to commerce, education, and health care," the three governors said in a joint statement. "We're urging all of our residents to avoid unnecessary or non-essential travel between states at this time, but will not subject residents of our states to a quarantine if coming from a neighboring state. New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have among the lowest infection rates in the country because we have based our approaches to controlling the spread on science and data, and we will continue to do so."
Travelers from the following states are required to quarantine for 14-days upon arrival in New York:
Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Cuomo also announced another extension of the ban on commercial evictions until Jan. 1. New York's ban on residential evictions is also due to expire on New Year's Day.