New York Gov. Cuomo mulls quarantine Florida travelers as cases rise

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday that he’s considering imposing a quarantine on travelers arriving to New York from states like Florida where coronavirus cases have spiked. 

“I haven’t made a decision yet, but I have had experts advise me of that. It is a real concern,” Cuomo said when asked about whether he’d consider imposing some sort of quarantine measure or taking health precautions at airports where travel has increased.

“It could happen, and it’s something I’m considering,” he said. 

In late March, as New York quickly became the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis mandated through an executive order that travelers from the tri-state area self-isolate for 14 days.

“That’s the only way we can be sure that that virus is not going to be reintroduced in the state of Florida and then spread,” DeSantis said of the order on March 23. DeSantis said he had spoken with President Donald Trump regarding the issue. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a similar executive order in late March mandating a 14-day quarantine for travelers arriving from the New York tri-state area.

The Covid-19 outbreak has since eased in New York but has shown signs of accelerating in Florida. Cuomo reported that of the more than 68,000 tests conducted in the state on Wednesday, less than 1{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} of them came back positive. 

Meanwhile, Florida has reported a spike in Covid-19 cases since June 8, posting a three-day moving average of 2,384 cases on Tuesday, an all-time high, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

“If you went to Florida, you had to quarantine for two weeks because they were afraid that New Yorkers were bringing the virus to their state. Fast forward a 100 days, now we’re afraid they’re bringing the virus to our state,” Cuomo said. 

The governor has previously pointed to Florida among several other states that have seen a resurgence of the virus since reopening. Arizona also reported a record-high number of new Covid-19 cases on Thursday with 2,519. 

“The number of people who are getting infected and getting sick and walking into a hospital is going up in these states. Undeniably. And you can go state by state. It’s Arizona. It’s Texas. It’s Florida. It’s North Carolina. It’s South Carolina. It’s Utah. It’s Montana. It’s Alaska. It’s 20 states on the increase,” Cuomo said.

Nationally, confirmed cases have been on the rise since Memorial Day weekend. While the rise in the number of administered Covid-19 tests could lead to an increase in the number of positive cases, hospitalization numbers have also been going up. 

Texas reported 2,793 hospitalizations on Wednesday, which marked the eighth new high in the state in less than two weeks.