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Law360 (June 24, 2020, 7:58 PM EDT) -- Travelers coming into New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will have to quarantine for two weeks if they are arriving from areas hit especially hard by coronavirus pandemic, the governors of the three states announced Wednesday.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, all Democrats, said that anyone coming into their states from certain COVID-19 hotbeds will have to isolate themselves first for 14 days. The quarantine rule will start as soon as the clock rolls over into Thursday, the governors said.
Cuomo said in a statement that the three governors have been trying to ensure the number of people being infected goes down, and that they don't want to have the numbers increase.
"In New York we went from the highest number of cases to some of the lowest rates in the country — no one else had to bend the curve as much as we did and now we have to make sure that the rate continues to drop in our entire region," Cuomo said in a statement.
The governors said that the quarantine rule will apply to anyone coming from a state that has a COVID-19 positivity rate of 10% or more over a week-long rolling average. Cuomo said that as of Wednesday, that definition would apply to those coming from numerous states, such as Florida, Texas, Arizona and others.
When Cuomo was asked during a press conference about how the measure will be enforced, he said that each state will have "its own enforcement mechanism." He said fines would be attached for not abiding by the 14-day quarantine, adding that violators would have to pay $2,000 for a first violation and $5,000 for a second.
The governors additionally said that hotels will be asked to let travelers coming from the hard-hit states know about the quarantine.
"We have made difficult decisions throughout this pandemic, but we have proven to make many of the right decisions," Lamont said. "This step to inform travelers [from] states with hot spots to self-isolate is meant to protect our residents and maintain our incredible public health progress."
By Wednesday evening, the United States had conducted more than 28.6 million coronavirus tests and had nearly 2.4 million positive cases, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
After surging above 30,000 confirmed cases per day in April, the U.S. saw a steady decline to fewer than 20,000 daily cases, even as testing dramatically expanded. But that progress has suddenly reversed amid surging infections across the southern half of the U.S. — including Arizona, Florida and Texas.
--Additional reporting by Jeff Overley.
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