The Associated Press
Travelers from Rhode Island have been added to the list of those who must quarantine while staying in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut as some Northeast states begin to see signs of rising infections.
There are 34 states and Puerto Rico on the travel advisory, which requires visitors from those areas to isolate themselves for 14 days in an attempt to prevent another surge of COVID-19 in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Rhode Island is the first neighboring state added to Connecticut’s advisory. Max Reiss, a spokesman for Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said the restrictions will not apply to routine daily travel between the two states.
The quarantine applies to any person arriving from a state — or territory or Washington, D.C. — with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or an area with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that Delaware and Washington, D.C. were dropped from the travel advisory. He said anyone traveling from states no longer on the advisory should still quarantine for 14 days.
“We cannot go back to the hell we experienced just a few months ago — and surging infection rates across the country threaten to bring us back there — so we must all remain vigilant,” Cuomo said in a statement.
Meanwhile, one of the three states behind the advisory, New Jersey, is showing signs of increased COVID-19 spread — though still not enough to exceed the metrics.
New Jersey has seen an average of around five new confirmed COVID-19 virus per 100,000 residents over the last week. That’s up from a low of 2.5 on July 22, and down from a peak of 41.4 new cases per 100,000 on April 7.
New York reported a daily rate Monday of 1.05, with a seven-day average of 3.44 per 100,00. Connecticut’s was 1.0, with a seven-day average of 2 per 100,000.
Cuomo has said New Jersey wouldn’t be subject to the advisory because the two states are so closely intertwined.
Rhode Island’s infection rate was reported to be at about 10 per 100,000 for a seven-day average, something that the state’s health department disputes. The state health department put its daily average for Monday at 2.7%
“We’ve reached out to The COVID Tracking Project several times to express concerns,” R.I. Department of Health spokesperson Joseph Wendelken told WPRI-TV. “The Rhode Island numbers they are using are inaccurate.”
