The governors of New York State, New Jersey, and Connecticut issued a travel advisory Tuesday discouraging residents from visiting neighboring states to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.
Citing economic concerns, New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont stopped short of requiring anyone who needs to cross tristate borders to self-quarantine for 14 days.
“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,” Cuomo, Murphy, and Lamont said in a joint statement. “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 travel advisory comes as New Jersey and Connecticut have seen a spike in cases. New Jersey had a 2.89 percent infection rate and Connecticut’s rate was 1.85 percent as of Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University data. New York, which is currently working to tamp down several hot spots, was 1.17 percent. Cuomo also declined to quarantine travelers from Pennsylvania, which had a 9.16 percent positivity rate, for the same reason as the tristate area.
Meanwhile, New York State requires travelers from 38 states, plus Puerto Rico and Guam, to self-quarantine for two weeks to curb the spread of COVID-19. The list includes areas 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.
“There is no practical way to quarantine New York from New Jersey and Connecticut,” Cuomo told reporters during a news conference Tuesday. “There are just too many interchanges. There are too many interconnections. There are too many people who live in one place and work in the other. It would have a disastrous effect on the economy and remember what we’re fighting, this public health pandemic, we’re also fighting to open up the economy.”
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