Coronavirus Updates: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut Order Quarantine for Travelers from States with Surging Cases | The Weather Channel
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Here are the latest developments in the COVID-19 pandemic.

ByJan Wesner ChildsJune 24, 2020

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New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will require travelers from states with surging cases of COVID-19 to quarantine for 14 days.

The governors of the three states announced the new rules Wednesday.

"All individuals traveling from states with significant community spread of COVID into NY, NJ, or CT must quarantine for 14 days," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Twitter. "This travel advisory is effective midnight tonight."

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The quarantines will be based on infection rates, Cuomo said during a joint press conference. Travelers arriving from states with a positive test rate either higher than 10 per 100,000 residents or 10% of the total population will be required to quarantine.

As of Wednesday, the rule applies to Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, Texas and Washington. Cuomo said the list of states under the quarantine order could change on a daily basis.

"We did a complete 180,” he said of the infection rates in New York, where more people have tested positive for COVID-19 than any other state. “We went from the highest cases, the highest viral transmission rate, to some of the lowest rates in the country. We now have to make sure that the rate continues to drop."

Cuomo said enforcement would be up to each of the three states, and violators in New York could face fines between $2,000 to $10,000.

Florida still has a similar rule on the books for travelers to the Sunshine State from those areas, but it was never widely enforced.

Meanwhile, Americans as a whole could be barred from traveling to as many as 27 European countries over fears they could spread coronavirus and bring a resurgence of COVID-19 cases to areas where the outbreak has slowed.

The European Commission is in the process of making recommendations to EU member countries on what restrictions should be put into place when their borders reopen on July 1. The EU encompasses most major European countries and many popular tourist destinations, including France, Italy, Spain and Germany.

The commission is compiling a list of which travelers should be allowed in, based on the status of coronavirus cases and spread in their countries of origin. The U.S., Russia and Brazil - the top three countries in the world in terms of infections - will likely not be on the list, according to a report by the New York Times.

The commission's recommendations aren't binding.

The EU's borders have been closed since mid-March. The U.S. also still has restrictions on travelers from most European countries.

With 2.3 million known cases of COVID-19 and more than 121,000 deaths, the U.S. is by far the hardest hit country in the world, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins University. By contrast, the largest outbreak in the EU so far is in Spain, where about 246,000 cases have been reported and 28,325 people have died.

More than 9.2 million people worldwide are known to have been infected with COVID-19, and at least 478,160 have died,

Latest Developments

United States:

-Some Disney employees are asking that reopening of the company's theme parks in Florida and California be delayed due to increasing cases of COVID-19, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Disney parks in Orlando are scheduled to begin reopening on July 11, while those in the Los Angeles area hope to welcome guests back on July 17, pending government approval. Employees in both locations have garnered thousands of signatures on petitions asking that those plans delayed. Florida, in particular, is in the midst of one of the worst outbreaks in the U.S. so far.

-Hospital systems in Arizona are being advised to put emergency plans into place to handle surging cases of COVID-19. "What I'd be focusing right now on is sounding the alarm to our hospital systems to get ready," Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association, told CNN Wednesday morning. "Because no matter what you do at this point, given where we are at the increase in cases, the exponential growth, taking into consideration the incubation period for this virus, we're going to go into surge capacity mode by the 4th of July."

-Miami's Jackson Health System has seen a 101% increases in COVID-19 cases about two weeks, CNN reported. The system reported 210 cases on Monday, compared to 104 on June 8.

-Eleven detectives working the evening shift in the same unit of the Dallas Police Department tested positive for COVID-19 this week, according to a news release. Twenty other employees are in quarantine awaiting test results.

-The Massachusetts Secretary of Veterans Services resigned Tuesday the deaths of 76 veteran residents in a coronavirus outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, WFXT-TV reported. A criminal investigation into the home's handling of the outbreak and sick residents is under investigation.

-Major League Baseball announced plans to begin the delayed baseball season in late July, playing only 60 games instead of the usual 162. Players will report for training on July 1. The announcement comes after extended disagreements between the players and the league over pay and other issues. It also comes amid an outbreak of COVID-19 in players that prompted teams to shut down their spring training facilities last week. At least 40 players and staff have tested positive, according to CBS Sports.

-The New York City Marathon, scheduled for Nov. 15, has officially been canceled.

Worldwide:

-More than 80% of the people in Canada who have died from COVID-19 were in nursing homes, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. That's the largest percentage of among large-economy countries with reliable data. The next highest number of nursing home deaths was in Ireland, with 62%. The number is 40% in the U.S. Overall, Canada has reported 103,000 cases of COVID-19 and at least 8,512 deaths.

-Croatia is restricting travelers from several other Balkan countries after a spike in cases of COVID-19, including an outbreak at a tennis tournament organized by top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who tested positive for coronavirus. People traveling to the country from Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo and North Macedonia will be required to self-isolate for 14 days, The Associated Press reported.

-A two-week spike in cases in China appears to be under control, according to the AP. The number of new cases declined Wednesday and no new deaths were reported. In all, the country has reported about 84,000 cases of COVID-19 and 4,640 deaths since the virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

For the latest coronavirus information in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions regarding the disease, check out our dedicated COVID-19 page.

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