Governor Cuomo announced an emergency health order on Monday with regards to travelers to New York from "designated high-COVID states."
Cuomo's latest executive order requires travelers from 18 high-risk states to provide contact information to the state upon their arrival or face a summons with a $2,000 fine.
The order dovetails with a previous measure requiring travelers from certain states quarantine for 14-days upon arrival in New York.
The governor says many other states ignored warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and opened too soon, thinking that the COVID-19 devastation seen in New York was impossible in less densely-populated states.
As New York has exhibited success against the pandemic with its phased reopening over the past month, the state is being put in jeopardy by travelers from elsewhere within the United States, officials fear.
"New York went down the path before. We lived exactly this," Cuomo said. "We knew that if you reopened recklessly the virus was going to take off again. Now, New York's problem is that we have this infection coming from other states."
Recent outbreaks of the virus in several New York counties have been traced back to people who recently arrived from high-COVID states like Florida or Georgia.
The high-risk states included in Cuomo's order as of Monday were Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
On Sunday, New York City reported no COVID-19-related deaths for the first time since March 11.
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