Quarantine roadblocks nab 353 out-of-towners

New York officials have stopped 353 cars at entrances to the Big Apple to warn travelers of the mandatory two-week quarantine rule.

The stops were made from Wednesday through Friday at bridges and tunnels, according to Mayor de Blasio’s office, which also said that 1,100 masks were distributed.

Cars were stopped randomly and occupants asked if they spent more than 24 hours during the previous 14 days in any state on New York’s restricted list.

Anyone who answered yes had to fill out a traveler health form.

The city says the stops are

“quick and educational.”

Travelers who violate the quarantine rule could face up to $10,000 in fines. There are currently 35 states plus Puerto Rico on the list.

The crackdown came as officials said last week that one in five new cases of COVID-19 in the city was an out-of-state traveler.

The number of new cases in New York remains low, with 0.93 percent of 75,000 tests done statewide Friday coming back positive. There were five coronavirus deaths Friday, according to Gov. Cuomo’s office.

But the US set a record for coronavirus cases on Saturday, with more than 5 million people now infected, according to a Reuters tally.

In France, where cases have begun a steady climb, an increasing number of cities are requiring mask-wearing in pubic.

The glamourous French Riviera resort town of Saint-Tropez mandated the face coverings beginning Saturday. And Paris is expected to expand its mask measure to crowded sections Monday.

There were more than 2,000 new infections in France on Friday, the biggest single-day increase since May.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus outbreak continues to affect the cruise-ship industry, with many workers still stuck on board months after the US banned such sailings in March.

Nearly 13,000 workers are still on 57 ships that are “moored, at anchor, or underway in vicinity of a US port, or with potential to arrive in a US port,” Brittany Panetta, a lieutenant commander and spokesperson for the US Coast Guard, told USA Today.

The Coast Guard estimated 209 Americans were on 37 ships. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it counted 53 US crew members on 22 cruise ships in US waters.

Some of those onboard may be working, as opposed to being stuck.

The CDC last month extended its ban on US cruise ship sailings through September.