This archive report was first published on 25 June 2020.
As of late March, Florida had begun requiring travelers from the New York area to quarantine, while other states sought to restrict visitors. This move was a response to the significant number of New Yorkers who had fled to out-of-state locales, often to places like Florida, in an effort to escape the virus.
However, the virus appears to be spreading rapidly outside of New York, with new infections surging in places like Arizona and Texas. As a result, those who left for other states will now have to quarantine upon their return to New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
On June 25, 2020, the city and state began a phased reopening of business, but officials have been cautious about a resurgence of the virus. The travel restrictions were an attempt to mitigate the risk of new infections coming from outside the state.
According to Governor Cuomo, the goal is to maintain the hard-fought gains against the virus that have been made over the past three months. He stated, "We now have the virus under control. Yeah, 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 J.F.K.? So, we get the infection rate down and then because other states are high, we could have a problem."
Epidemiologists agree that quarantine requirements make sense, as the outbreak remains active and the situation in any one state or region of the country could still change.
