New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have added three new states to the tri-state travel advisory as more areas across the nation see an uptick in coronavirus cases.
The advisory requires travelers from certain states hit hard by COVID-19 to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in the tri-state area.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo first announced Tuesday that Delaware, Kansas and Oklahoma will now join the growing list. Soon after, New Jersey and Connecticut added the states to their lists.
States under the travel advisory must have an infection rate above 10 cases per 100,000 people, or if 10% of the total population tests positive. Both metrics will be monitored on a rolling seven-day average.
As of July 7, there are currently 19 states that meet the criteria:
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Arizona
- California
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Iowa
- Idaho
- Kansas
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- North Carolina
- Nevada
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
"As states around the country experience increasing community spread, New York is taking action to ensure the continued safety of our phased reopening," Gov. Cuomo said. "Our entire response to this pandemic has been by the numbers, and we've set metrics for community spread just as we set metrics for everything."
Of the 56,736 COVID-19 tests conducted Monday in New York, only 588 of them – or about 1.04% – came back positive, Cuomo said.
The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut imposed a 14-day quarantine on people traveling to the tri-state area from states with a high transmission rate of coronavirus last week.
The advisory also applies to tri-state area residents who are traveling back to their home state from areas with a high rate of transmission.
The travel advisory comes as all three states continue to make great strides in slowing the spread of COVID-19.
The tri-state area was considered the epicenter of the country's coronavirus outbreak as the number of cases in March and April soared into the hundreds of thousands and the death toll continued to climb for weeks.