The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Govs eye quarantining visitors
Lamont, leaders of N.Y., N.J. discussing issue as cases of COVID-19 rise in southern states
Gov. Ned Lamont is working with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on a regional requirement that out-of-state visitors, particularly those from states with rising infection rates in the coronavirus pandemic, selfquarantine for 14 days after arriving here.
Short of a mandatory 14-day quarantine for visitors, Lamont indicated that the region’s governors are thinking of allowing visitors to freely move about if they present documents indicating negative results of recent COVID-19 tests.
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, while early epicenters of COVID-19 infections, in recent weeks have succeeded in sharply reducing the spread of the pandemic and have taken steps toward reopening — even as many other states, including Texas, Arizona and Florida, have seen increases in COVID-19.
“We are talking about some sort of a regional quarantine,” Lamont said Monday during his daily news briefing in the state Capitol. “If folks want to come to the New York metropolitan area, the Boston metropolitan area, perhaps they should show that they’ve been tested in the very recent past, or they should quarantine.”
Lamont didn’t say what rules the three states would use or give other details. “We’re going to have some guidance on that very, very soon,” he said.
The issue of quarantines for travelers among states has a politically fraught and confusing history during the coronavirus crisis. On March 28, President Donald Trump told reporters he was considering a two-week quarantine of the Metro New York area, including parts of Connecticut.
It was not clear what Trump meant by the quarantine other than that it would be a partial travel ban. After eight tense hours in which the three governors spoke with White House officials, Trump tweeted that the plan was off.
More than a dozen states have some kind of quarantine requirements, including Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine, according to Forbes magazine and travelpulse.com.
“I think you tie it to the higher positivity numbers,” Lamont said. “I don’t think you pick on a state. Obviously you’re at some risk if there are planes coming in from Miami or Phoenix or Austin, where you have a very high positivity rate even among younger people who may be asymptomatic.”
Asked how he would enforce the quarantine,
Lamont said many travelers come to the region via the major airports in New York City, New Jersey, Boston and Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks. “I think the idea of self-quaratining for two weeks maybe is tough, especially if they are coming up for a shorter period of time,” Lamont said, adding that he talked with Cuomo on Monday.
“It’s more effective if we act as a regional collaboration, and I’m talking to them about putting in guidelines so we don’t have people coming from these other states,” Cuomo said in an interview on MSNBC as reported by Times-Union newspaper in Albany.
Paul Mounds, Lamont’s chief of staff, who has been the state’s liaison to the neighboring governors’ regional efforts, said many other states are seeing large increases in COVID-19 infections even as Connecticut’s cases are dropping.
“We want to make sure that our infection rate stays down based upon the great work we have been doing here,” Mounds said.
Lamont on Monday announced three new fatalities in the coronavirus pandemic, bringing the total to 4,263 since the first death on March 17. He said a net reduction of nine patients brings the hospitalization total statewide to 140, the fewest since around March 26.
Travel and quarantine rules have varied by state and have led to some friction between states.
Earlier in the pandemic, Rhode Island state police stopped vehicles heading into that state, questioned drivers on their destinations and ordered them to selfquarantine if they were remaining. That was initially aimed at travelers from New York, but later broadened.
But by the end of May and the beginning of June, the requirements were dropped by Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, except for those travelers coming from states with active stayat-home orders.
Alaska requires a negative COVID test 72 hours before a flight. Arkansas, Florida and Oklahoma order visitors from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to selfquarantine for 14 days. Massachusetts still requires all visitors to quarantine for two weeks, as does New Hampshire. Starting June 26, Maine will demand 14-day quarantines or proof of negative COVID tests.
Anyone flying into Hawaii, or New Mexico’s airports must also quarantine for 14 days.
Lamont said that since the state’s gradual reopening on May 20, public health indicators are still trending in a positive direction with declining hospitalizations and deaths.
Since last Wednesday, when Phase 2 allowed other personal services such as limited indoor dining, gyms and nail salons to reopen, there have been positive signs.
“I don’t think our reopening has contributed at all to any type of a flareup that I have seen,” Lamont said. “In fact, just the opposite. The metrics keep going in the right direction.”