Cuomo: ‘Seriously considering a quarantine’ for out-of-state visitors

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said he is “seriously considering” implementing a quarantine for out-state-visitors to New York as the number of cases in the Empire State drop while elsewhere cases are spiking.

“You have about half the states in this country you’re seeing the virus going up, New York we have the virus going down,” Cuomo said Tuesday on NBC’s “Today.” 

“I have people calling me all day long, they’re worried about where they are, they want to come to New York,” he added. “And that’s great but we don’t want them bringing the virus here, so we’re seriously considering a quarantine just to make sure that people who come in from states with higher infections don’t inadvertently increase our infection rate.” 

Last week Cuomo floated the idea of implementing a 14-day self-quarantine for travelers visiting from Florida, where cases are spiking. 

Nearly half the states in the U.S., mainly in the South, have reported recent spikes in coronavirus cases as states start lifting restrictions put in place to mitigate the spread of the virus. 

Cuomo defended New York’s gradual reopening plan, which was slower than the plans many other states put in place. 

“We went through what the other states are going through, and we did have a science-based reopening. We did it on the facts, we did control it, we did moderate it and that’s what works,” Cuomo said. “The states that reopened with abandon, they now have tremendous infection rates.”

He also dismissed concerns that he was too slow in reopening. 

Some parts of New York opened businesses earlier, but New York City, which was once the epicenter of the crisis, just entered its second phase of reopening this week. The step allows some businesses to reopen at limited capacity. 

“Look at the facts, look around the country, everything says we did it right and we did it smart. Look, nobody wanted to close, no business person wanted to close, no employee wanted to stay home, but there was no alternative,” Cuomo said. 

“And those states that had this blind ‘OK let’s do whatever we want to do and reopen immediately,’ they have serious problems now,” he added. 

The number of new cases nationally climbed above 30,000 per day over the weekend after it had leveled off at around 20,000 per day for weeks. 

The spike is being driven by worsening outbreaks across the South and Southwest. 

In some cases, officials are looking to rein back reopening plans. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) said Monday he is pushing back the state’s next reopening phase for at least four weeks as the state’s number of cases continued to spike, reaching more than 50,000 total cases.