New York will fine NC travelers who don’t give contact information for quarantine
Travelers from North Carolina will be required to provide their contact information if they visit New York.
The state is mandating that all visitors from “designated high-COVID states,” which includes North Carolina, give officials their contact information upon arrival in New York for the purpose of enforcing the state’s mandatory 14-day quarantine for these travelers, Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted Monday.
Those who don’t give their information will receive a summons and fine of $2,000.
“We’re serious about enforcing quarantine,” Cuomo tweeted.
The order applies to the same travelers for whom New York previously issued a mandatory quarantine.
In June, Cuomo and the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut announced that travelers from states with “significant community spread” would be required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in their three states, McClatchy News previously reported.
The rule applies to states with a positive coronavirus test rate of at least 10 per 100,000 residents or with a seven-day rolling average of at least 10% positive tests.
As of Monday, it applies to 16 states. South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and other Southeast states are also included on the list. New states can be added.
Cuomo said during a news conference Monday that there have been issues with compliance to the order, which can lead to outbreaks.
Now, travelers from the designated states will be required to give local authorities a location form before they leave the airport, Cuomo said in the news conference. The form will include information about where the person is traveling from and where they are going.
Airlines will hand out the form on the plane, and it will be available online.
In addition to the fine, those who leave the airport without providing the form can also be brought to a hearing and ordered to complete mandatory quarantine, the governor says.
“None of this is pleasant but we’ve gone through this before,” Cuomo said.
It’s unclear if the governor’s emergency order applies to people traveling into New York by car. McClatchy News has reached out to Cuomo’s office for clarification.
Once a hot spot for the coronavirus outbreak, New York has since managed to get its transmission rates and cases to some of the lowest levels in the country. In turn, other states — especially in the South — have seen their cases skyrocket and have emerged as new hot spots.
Coronavirus numbers in North Carolina have been moving in the wrong direction.
The percentage of tests coming back positive has ranged between 8% and 10% over the last few weeks, data from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services show. On Sunday, 10% of tests were positive. That number should ideally be closer to 5%, health officials have said.
Hospitalizations have also been spiking — breaking daily records on six days last week. Monday marked the fifth consecutive day in which daily hospitalizations topped 1,000.
The state of New York has taken other measures to keep it’s numbers low while the pandemic worsens in others partsof the country.
Cuomo issued another order last month removing coronavirus protections for New York employees who voluntarily travel to a state with a high rate of coronavirus transmission — which also included North Carolina, McClatchy News reported.
“We can’t be in a situation where we have people coming from other states in the country bringing the virus again,” Cuomo said Monday. “It is that simple.”
This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 5:34 PM.
