Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that people traveling from states with high COVID-19 infection rates will be subject to a 14 day quarantine if they are entering New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut.
These are people traveling from states where the infection rate is 10 percent of the population.
Right now, those states are Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Arizona, Washington, Florida, and Utah.
This is subject to change depending on how infection rates fluctuate, so the governor said he will update which states are on the list daily.
"I think it's right, I think it's smart, and I'm glad that we're doing this together," Cuomo said.
"This is a smart thing to do,” Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey said during the briefing. "The last thing we need to do right now is to subject our folks to another round."
The quarantine goes into effect at midnight on Thursday. People who break the quarantine will be placed in a mandatory quarantine or face fines of up to $10,000 if they cause harm.
Back in March, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis imposed a similar quarantine order on those flying to the Sunshine State from New York. Around the same time, Cuomo threatened to sue Rhode Island when it was considering stopping drivers with New York plates when the coronavirus was at its peak in New York. He called the move unconstitutional.
Rhode Island reversed the order when Cuomo threatened to sue.
Cuomo's order comes as parts of the state are poised to enter Phase 4 of economic reopening on Friday. Five upstate regions fit the requirements to do so.
Indoor religious gatherings will now be allowed up to 33 percent occupancy for regions in Phase 4, as well as groups of up to 50 people.
There were 1,071 hospitalizations for COVID-19 in New York on Tuesday, the lowest number since March 19.
The state conducted 51,144 COVID tests in the last 24 hours, and 1.1 percent came back positive.
Also in the last day, 17 people died from COVID-19 in New York. This is down from 27 fatalities the day before.