New York adds three more states’ travelers to growing list for quarantine order

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced Tuesday that his state, New Jersey and Connecticut are adding Delaware, Kansas and Oklahoma to the growing list of states under their quarantine order amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

Last month, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced a joint travel advisory requiring travelers from states with an infection rate of more than 10 cases per 100,000 people on a seven-day rolling average to quarantine when entering. 

As of Tuesday, travelers going into the three from 19 hot spot states are told to isolate for 14 days. Delaware is the first state from the Northeast to make it onto the list. 

The states already on the list before Tuesday’s additions are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Utah, Texas, Tennessee, Iowa, Idaho, Georgia, California, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Nevada.

The quarantine order comes as the tri-state area is recovering from its outbreak after at one point being the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S. The virus is now surging in other parts of the country, particularly California, Texas and Florida. 

On Tuesday, New York recorded 10 COVID-19 deaths, and only 1 percent of the 57,000 people tested were positive for the virus. On some of its worst days in April, the state recorded upward of 700 coronavirus-related deaths. 

“As states around the country experience increasing community spread, New York is taking action to ensure the continued safety of our phased reopening,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Our entire response to this pandemic has been by the numbers, and we’ve set metrics for community spread just as we set metrics for everything.”