Cuomo Mulls Restricting Travel From NJ, CT As Infections Rise

Matt Troutman
Updated ·2 min read
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NEW YORK CITY — Coronavirus case spikes in New Jersey and Connecticut have reached a point where all non-essential travel between them and the Empire State is discouraged, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

Cuomo’s assessment Tuesday of New York’s neighboring states comes amid growing COVID-19 outbreaks across the country. He said 43 states now qualify for New York’s travel advisory list, which requires travelers from them to quarantine for 14 days — but he didn’t include New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania on the list because the close ties between the states make it impractical.

He said he’ll be speaking with Connecticut’s and New Jersey’s governors Tuesday about how New York officials can help with the outbreaks and also “about making it clear to the extent travel among the states or between the states is not essential, it should avoided.”

“And I’ll have more to say on that (Wednesday),” he said.

Arizona and Maryland were added to the list, according to a release.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut all share the same travel advisory standards, which are:

  • An average daily number of cases higher than 10 per 100,000 over a seven-day period.

  • A positivity rate of 10 percent or higher over seven days.

But Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont recently suggested changing the standards to make it more difficult for states to get on the list.

Connecticut’s and New Jersey’s positivity rates still stand far below the 10 percent threshold for the travel advisory, but their cases reached above 10 cases per 100,000 people, New York officials said.

Cuomo did not address Lamont’s proposal to change the standard — indeed, he and his staff made clear they were sticking with the old level.

Officials will discourage non-essential travel from those states into New York, Cuomo said. But otherwise it’s too difficult to separate the three states’ economies, he said.

“There is no practical way to quarantine New York from Connecticut and New Jersey,” Cuomo said.

The official quarantine list is now 40 states and territories. Those are:

  • 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

  • Wyoming

This article originally appeared on the New York City Patch