It’s beginning to look a lot like fall: everyone everywhere is coughing, snorting, and sneezing as we head into the sort of wet, rainy weather we all, for good reasons, associate with flu and cold season. And for exactly the same reasons, it’s COVID-19 season now too. New outbreaks and rising numbers are everywhere as we rush towards Halloween and people start making their travel plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
If your plans include New York this year, odds are you should think again. New York guidelines require quarantine on arrival if you’re coming from a state that has more than 1 person in 10,000 testing positive per week, or more than 10 percent of tests performed returning positive. According to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, 43 out of 50 states currently meet this standard.
Enforcement is another issue, however. State borders have no checkpoints, so the guidelines are truly on the honor system for those arriving by car. If you’re flying, however, expect the rule to be enforced.
New York, especially New York City, suffered terribly in the early months of the outbreak, but has done an astounding job at reducing the spread since then. The state doesn’t want to undo that work.
Visitors traveling from “red list” states are required to self-quarantine for 14 days and to complete a traveler health form with the Department of Health for contact tracing purposes. Enforcement is still difficult, but penalties so far include fines.
The states currently NOT on New York’s red list (as of Tuesday, October 20): California, Connecticut*, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey*, Oregon, Pennsylvania*, and Washington.
*By the numbers, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania ought to be on the red list, but New York acknowledges that “there is no practical way” to quarantine New York from its closest neighbors. Instead, New York will help those states work to suppress their outbreaks.
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