New York to Conduct Spot Inspections on Out-of-State Visitors

After yesterday’s announcement that out-of-state visitors from certain states where there is a large COVID-19 outbreak will be subject to a two-week quarantine upon arrival in New York, Governor Cuomo announced today the State Health Department and the Port Authority will be making check-ins to ensure those who are supposed to be in quarantine are.

Governor Cuomo said, “The law is if you come in from another state you have to self-quarantine for 14 days. If you don't, and you get caught, you will have violated the law. You can be fined...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.”

As he was pushed by Alison Camerota on how this forced quarantine is any different than the one that he has battled Florida Governor DeSantis on just three months prior, Governor Cuomo said, “I say to them all look at the numbers. You played politics with this virus and you lost.”

This statement is of course especially surprising as Columbia University came out with a report today that said that if New York had gone into quarantine a week earlier as per Mayor de Blasio’s request, twenty-two thousand lives could have been saved.

Photo by: Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo