Trump issues ‘Travel Advisory’ for 3 states, including New York

NORFOLK, Va. — President Donald Trump backed away from calling for a quarantine for coronavirus hot spots in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, instead directing Saturday night that a “strong Travel Advisory” be issued to stem the spread of the outbreak.

After consulting with the White House task force leading the federal response and the governors of the three affected states, Mr. Trump said: “I have asked the @CDCgov to issue a strong Travel Advisory, to be administered by the Governors, in consultation with the Federal Government. A quarantine will not be necessary.”

Mr. Trump had told reporters earlier Saturday that he had spoken with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, among others who wanted the federal government to restrict travel from the New York metropolitan area to their states.

The notion of a quarantine had been sharply criticized by the governors of New York and Connecticut.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who criticized the federal government’s response as his state became the country’s virus epicenter, said the issue had not come up in a conversation he had with Mr. Trump earlier Saturday.

“I don’t even know what that means,” the Democrat said at a briefing in New York. “I don’t know how that could be legally enforceable, and from a medical point of view, I don’t know what you would be accomplishing . ... I don’t like the sound of it.”

The federal government is empowered under the law to take measures to prevent the spread of communicable diseases between states, but it’s not clear that means Mr. Trump can ban people from leaving their state. It has never been tested in the modern era — and in rare cases when any quarantine was challenged, the courts generally sided with public health officials.

Courts have ruled consistently for years that the authority to order quarantines inside states rests almost entirely with the states, under provisions in the Constitution ceding power not explicitly delegated to the federal government to states. The federal government, though, would have power under constitutional clauses regulating commerce to quarantine international travelers or those traveling state to state who might be carriers of deadly diseases.

Still, “it is entirely unprecedented that governors or the president would prevent people from traveling from one state to another during an infectious disease outbreak,” said Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University law professor and public health specialist who questioned Mr. Trump’s ability to order a quarantine on states.

But as Mr. Trump traveled to Norfolk, Va., to see off a U.S. Navy medical ship setting sail for New York City to help with the pandemic response, he tweeted: “I am giving consideration to a QUARANTINE of developing “hot spots”, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. A decision will be made, one way or another, shortly.”

The governors of Florida, Maryland, South Carolina and Texas already have ordered people arriving from the New York area to selfquarantine for at least 14 days upon arrival. Rhode Island police have begun pulling over drivers with New York plates so that the National Guard can collect contact information and inform them of a mandatory, 14-day quarantine.