Cuomo: Out-of-state travelers to face ‘random checks’ to ensure quarantining
Inspectors will perform “random checks” on out-of-state travelers who are supposed to be under New York’s new self-quarantine orders, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.
“You fly into New York, we’ll have your name, we’ll know where you’re supposed to be staying,” Cuomo told CNN of people arriving from the list of states with high coronavirus rates.
“There’ll be random checks,” he said of the joint advisory with New Jersey and Connecticut that went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
“We’ll have inspectors who are randomly looking at names on the [flight lists] and following up to make sure you’re quarantining. And if you’re not, then you’re in violation of the law and you will have a mandatory quarantine and you’ll be fined.”
He admitted that many will undoubtedly still slip through the net, saying that “like any other” law, “if you don’t get caught, you’re fine.”
But he warned that travelers faced other risks of getting caught out, such as if they get “pulled over by a police officer” for any reason and it proves they should be under quarantine.
“You get sick, you go to a hospital from out of state and you test positive and you’ve been within the 14 days — you violated the law,” he said. “You’re going to have a problem.”
He insisted it was “not a blockade” on the states with high coronavirus rates, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington state.
“I don’t believe a blockade is legal … but states do have the authority to regulate their own public health,” he said.
“I think most people are going to honor it,” he insisted.
Cuomo said New York now has the “lowest hospitalization rates since this started” with 996.
He called it a “real American tragedy” that other states did not follow New York’s stay-at-home policy.
“You played politics with this virus and you lost,” he said of other states that opened up much sooner. “It’s now undeniable this country paid a terrible price.”