New coronavirus cases hit record high; many travelers entering New York, New Jersey and Connecticut must enter mandatory quarantine

Editor’s note: This post has been updated to reflect new information, and was first published on June 24, 2020.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have declared a mandatory 14-day quarantine for travelers entering from regions with heightened rates of COVID-19 cases.

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“We now have to make sure that the [COVID-19 infection] rate continues to drop,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a June 24 Facebook live announcement alongside Governors Philip Murphy of New Jersey and Ned Lamont of Connecticut. “We also need to make sure the virus doesn’t come in on a plane.”

Related: A state-by-state guide to reopening

The travel advisory went into effect at midnight Thursday, June 25, applies to anyone arriving from a state with a 10 percent or higher infection rate increase over a seven-day rolling average.

As of July 2, the states to which this metric currently applies include:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Arizona
• California
• Florida
• Georgia
• Iowa
• Idaho
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Nevada
• North Carolina
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah

You can use this website to check for up-to-date information.

The measure is designed to curb the second wave of coronavirus infections, which spiked sharply after a number of states reopened their economies. As the situation develops, more regions may be added to the quarantine list.

Related: Las Vegas reopened with major changes

Cuomo stated last week that New York now has “the virus under control — but Florida doesn’t, Texas doesn’t, these other states don’t. And what happens if they get on a plane and they come to JFK? So, we get the infection rate down and then because other states are high, we could have a problem.”

Related: Dreaming of a sandy beach? These Caribbean countries are open to U.S. tourists

Yesterday, July 1, set a record for the single-highest number of new cases in a single day since the coronavirus pandemic reached the United States, with 54,357 new cases and 725 new deaths have been reported over the past 24 hours, according to CDC data.

As of today, July 2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has tallied nearly 2.7 million cases and 128,000 U.S. deaths due to COVID-19 — an increase of 400,000 cases and 7,000 deaths since this article was published on June 24.

The CDC stats highlight more than 40 jurisdictions across the United States that report more than 10,000 cases of COVID-19, including every one of the nine states targeted in the northeast tri-state travel advisory.

“This [mandatory quarantine] is a smart thing to do,” New Jersey Governor Murphy said in late June, referencing the “hell and back” that residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut had experienced over the past three months due to the coronavirus pandemic. “The last thing we need to is subject our folks to another round [of infection].”

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut’s current quarantine restrictions aren’t the first to be levied upon U.S. travelers. A handful of states including Hawaii and Maine have implemented mandatory quarantines during this pandemic. Meanwhile, Americans have been banned from entering a number of reopening foreign countries including Iceland, Germany and the European Union.

Related: A country-by-country guide to reopening

The State Department’s global travel advisory remains at a Level 4: Do Not Travel — the highest level of risk warning.

Featured photo by Shutterstock.