Coronavirus: North east expands quarantine rules to travellers from other US states

Tristate area adds to travel advisory, while Massachusetts imposes 14-day quarantine on all states outside of the north east

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have doubled the number of states travellers from which have to self-quarantine upon arrival to stop a resurgence of the coronavirus in the region.

Separately, Massachusetts has imposed a blanket 14-day quarantine for everyone arriving in the state from outside of the Northeast.

The tristate area, centred on New York City, has added California, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada and Tennessee to an existing list of eight other states from which travellers are required to self-quarantine for two weeks.

In a statement released on Tuesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said: “As an increasing number of states around the country fight significant community spread, New York is taking action to maintain the precarious safety of its phased, data-driven reopening.”

After posting some of the worst case numbers and deaths in the world for much of the initial wave of infections, New York and its neighbours fought back hard to minimise infections.

Having managed to maintain a low number of new cases to date, the fear is that travellers from outside the state could spark fresh outbreaks.

Governor Cuomo explained: “We've set metrics for community spread just as we've set metrics for everything the state does to fight Covid-19 and eight more states have reached the level of spread required to qualify for New York's travel advisory, meaning we will now require individuals travelling to New York from those states to quarantine for 14 days.”

Quarantine orders were already in place for Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.

The list includes states with positive test rates of more than 10 per 100,000 residents or that have a 10 per cent or higher positivity rate over a seven-day rolling average.

Massachusetts has opted for a more comprehensive 14-day self-quarantine rule that applies to all states, with the exception of Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

That travel advisory goes into effect on Wednesday.