New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced Monday that travelers to New York from states with high rates of COVID-19 cases must provide authorities with contact information or face a $2,000 fine and a court summons.
“We’re serious about enforcing quarantine,” Cuomo tweeted.
New York has drastically reduced its case numbers after being the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States, reporting zero COVID-19-related deaths Saturday for the first time since March. Cuomo said the challenge is now enforcing compliance with health guidelines and limiting the potential of the virus to return to New York from other states.
The new emergency health order aims to create a legal mechanism to ensure the latter does not happen.
In June, New York began requiring a mandatory 14-day quarantine for travelers from states with high rates of infection. Travelers from 19 states currently on New York’s quarantine list will have to fill out a form detailing their contact information, where they are coming from and where they intend to go, and then give the form to authorities. Forms will be available online and distributed by airlines, Cuomo said.
Failure to comply would result in a court summons and fine, and a court could compel a traveler to complete a mandatory 14-day quarantine, Cuomo said. The order will be enforced in all of the state’s airports and in Port Authority, he said.
“None of this is pleasant, but we’ve gone through this before,” Cuomo said. "We went through this when [Port Authority Executive Director] Rick Cotton and people at the Port Authority watched 3 million people from Europe come into this state and bring the virus. Fool me once. We can’t be in a situation where we have people coming from other states bringing the virus again. It is that simple.”
Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah are on New York's quarantine list.