Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Wednesday that New York and two neighboring states would begin requiring certain out-of-state visitors entering their states to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival.
The restrictions, which also cover New Jersey and Connecticut, will be based on specific health metrics related to the coronavirus, Mr. Cuomo said. At the moment, travelers from nine states would be required to quarantine, mostly from the south, including Florida, Texas and Arizona.
The order takes effect at midnight, Mr. Cuomo said on Wednesday, a quick implementation aimed at preventing a rush of travelers hoping to avoid the requirement.
The move punctuated a stark shift in the course of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak; for months, the state, particularly New York City, had been a global epicenter of the pandemic. Hospitals filled to near capacity. Hundreds died each day, reaching a peak in mid-April.
Many New Yorkers with the means to do so fled, often to out-of-state locales. By late March, Florida began requiring travelers from the New York area to quarantine. Other states sought to restrict visitors. Researchers later found that by March, New York City had been seeding outbreaks around the country.
Now, the virus appears to be spreading far more rapidly outside of New York. New infections are surging in Arizona and Texas.
Nearly 20,000 people tested positive for the virus in Florida over the last five days ending Tuesday; in New York, where far more people are being tested daily, roughly 3,200 did during that period.
“We now have to make sure that the rate continues to drop,” Mr. Cuomo said. “We also need to make sure the virus doesn’t come in on a plane.”
Only a handful of states — including Maine, Rhode Island and Hawaii — have required out-of-state travelers to quarantine. A larger number have asked travelers to quarantine but do not mandate doing so. And a few, such as Florida and Kansas, apply the requirement only to those coming from certain states.
The new quarantine requirement in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut would apply to any person arriving from a state with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents, or a state with a 10 percent or higher rate over a seven-day rolling average.
Currently, Mr. Cuomo said, those metrics would apply to Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Utah, Texas and Washington.
Mr. Cuomo said that enforcement would be up to each of the three states. In New York, he said, those violating the quarantine order could be “subject to a judicial order and mandatory quarantine.” A first violation could result in a $2,000 fine and a second would bring a $5,000 fine, he said, up to $10,000 for someone who causes “harm.”
The effect of the order may be largely symbolic. Even in places where out-of-state arrivals are already formally required to quarantine, there has not been widespread enforcement to make sure the rules were being followed.
“You could argue that even law is the honor system until you get caught,” Mr. Cuomo said. “You can violate the quarantine until you get caught,” he added, then “you’re in mandatory quarantine and fined thousands of dollars.”
Players from the Mets and Yankees who have been in Florida but are coming back to New York for an abbreviated and late spring training will not be required to quarantine, Mr. Cuomo said. The state had been working on separate “health protocols” with them since last week, he said.
With more than 31,000 deaths and 412,000 cases to date, New York was the epicentre of the pandemic at one stage, but now other southern and western states are seeing a rise in infections.
