Floridians told to quarantine if they travel to the Northeast

NY, NJ, Connecticut announce new virus mandate

Traveling from Florida to the Northeast for business or pleasure?

The idea took a strong shot of cold water Wednesday when New York, New Jersey and Connecticut all said that visitors and even residents returning home from Florida won’t be allowed to walk around freely because of the state’s high coronavirus infection rate.

Whether they arrive by plane, train or car, travelers will have to quarantine for 14 days or face stiff fines.

Once again, travel plans are in limbo. Craig Studnicky, president and CEO of RelatedISG International Realty, doubted he’ll be making a return visit any time soon to see his children on Long Island.

“I was just there after not having seen them since Christmas,” he said. “Now they’re going to tell me: ‘Dad, you’re not going to come for awhile.’ It would put a red light on my travel plans.”

Shmuel Tennenhaus, a Hallandale Beach resident who markets condiments for a company called Pizza Packets, said the three states are now off limits for his Boca Raton employer.

“We are avoiding traveling to those states because of the quarantine,” he said. “We cannot afford to be quarantined and have down time.”

The three states, among the hardest hit

in the nation, have fought desperately to get the pandemic under control, and they don’t want Floridians dragging in the virus from a state where it is exploding.

Florida reported 5,511 news cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, a record for one day. New York reported 514 new cases Wednesday.

In New York, violating the quarantine will be costly: $2,000 for the first violation, $5,000 for the second and $10,000 if infected travelers are found to have caused harm to the public. The other two states will set up their own penalties.

The same rules apply to travelers from Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington — all states with soaring rates of COVID-19.

The order essentially locks down travel between two kindred states.

Hundreds of New Yorkers spend winters in Florida, and thousands have made the move south for good.

Although a number of snowbirds have returned home for the summer, others are staying put. According to a New York Times study, large numbers who fled New York City starting in March came to South Florida.

The three states’ quarantine orders will limit temporary transplants’ ability to return freely to their homes and families in the Northeast.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took similar steps when the pandemic was raging up north, and they remain in effect.

Airline passengers were required to fill out forms aboard their planes and hand them off to public health officials when they landed at Florida airports. The governor also set up a checkpoint on Interstate 95 for people driving south from the Northeast.

All travelers were told to quarantine and report where they would be staying.

At the same time, the European Union is discussing travel restrictions pegged to regions of the U.S. that have higher infection rates than others. But the member nations, which want to reopen their borders to international travel July 1, have yet to settle on criteria and it’s not likely the measures will be mandatory, according to reports.