Ohio travelers on NY’S quarantine list
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday added Ohio to the list of 22 hard-hit states from which visitors must quarantine in New York for 14 days to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Under a regional agreement between the neighboring states, the voluntary quarantine also applies to Ohioans traveling to New Jersey and Connecticut.
The travel quarantines came ahead of Ohio health officials reporting 1,142 additional confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus on Monday as the pandemic’s spike of infections continued to mount. Tuesday’s daily number was the ninth highest of the pandemic.
Cuomo’s office said the quarantine mandate was issued because Ohio’s rate of positive virus tests had reached 10% or higher over a seven-day rolling average, or exceeded 10 people per 100,000 residents over seven days.
Ohio’s per-capita number of positive tests has increased to 10.9 people per 100,000 population based on the seven-day moving average of 1,271 cases, confirmed Ohio Department of Health spokeswoman Melanie Amato.
Ohio’s average seven-day test positivity rate was 6.3% as of Sunday, the latest day available from state data. Daily positive test percentages have ranged from 6.2% to 6.9% in recent days.
New Mexico, Minnesota and Wisconsin also were added to New York’s list of quarantined traveler states.
New York’s leeriness over visitors from Ohio comes as coronavirus infections continue to spiral in the Buckeye State. Dewine abruptly canceled a scheduled news conference on the coronavirus Tuesday without explanation.
On Monday, Cuomo announced travelers from affected states would be required to provide details about their trip and contact information at airports to help ensure they follow quarantine restrictions. A fine of up to $2,000 can accompany violations.
New York, the early epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, has largely recovered, reducing its positive test numbers to generally under 2% after recording nearly 25,000 deaths.
While far less troubled than New York was, longer-term numbers document the explosion of virus infections sweeping parts of Ohio.
After the three-week average of new daily cases dropped to 440 on June 14, the number had more than doubled to 1,041 by Tuesday amid the spike of four-figure days of new COVID-19 infections.
The state also reported daily hospitalizations nearly doubled to 134 on Tuesday while recording five additional deaths. The number of new cases was lower than Monday’s number of 1,261.
Since the pandemic began in Ohio slightly more than four months ago, the state has recorded 67,995 cases and 3,069 deaths.
Ohio’s leader in virus cases and deaths, Franklin County, reported 273 new cases and no additional deaths Tuesday. Its pandemic totals now stand at 12,574 infections and 449 fatalities.
Ten of the pandemic’s 12 highest daily coronavirus case totals — including a new record of 1,525 on Friday — have come since the start of July. New cases have increased by about 50% since June 21.
While states such as Texas have imposed statewide mask requirements and California has backed off its reopening, Dewine has said he prefers a county-bycounty approach to masks and any future restrictions.
Ranging in size from the 1.3 million residents of Franklin County, Ohio’s largest, to the 58,547 residents of neighboring Pickaway County, the state mask mandate covers a dozen counties, covering a tick over half of all Ohioans.
Adding the 10 other “red” counties of Butler, Clermont, Cuyahoga, Fairfield, Hamilton, Lorain, Montgomery, Summit, Trumbull and Wood, 5.9 million of Ohio’s nearly 11.7 million residents are affected.
Add mask mandates in other cities, such as Toledo, whose counties are rated below red on the state’s scale, and the percentage of Ohioans required to don masks exceeds well over half of the state’s residents.
Ahead of Ohio’s economic reopening, Dewine announced April 27 that masks generally would be required in public, but he quickly reversed himself after pushback from Ohioans who found it “offensive.”
The reopening order did require employees to wear facial coverings in workplaces.
Dewine had made repeated pleas for more than two months for Ohioans to wear face coverings to help check the spread of virus particles by those who were unknowingly infected.
As cases began a major spike in recent weeks, cities such as Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Dayton have imposed their own mask orders, with Dewine then joining the cause afterward.
The governor announced July 7 that masks must be worn in public in “red” counties with increasing cases and “very high exposure and spread.”
Late last week, Dewine expressed concern about the growing number of younger Ohioans contracting the virus. Since June, about a fourth of all cases have been among those ages 20 to 29, the highest percentage of any age group.
Ohioans ages 20 to 29 account for only 5% of hospitalizations since the pandemic began. Health experts say younger adults are less likely to become seriously ill from the virus, which could be reflected in the state’s recent rate of hospitalizations despite the growth in cases.
From early June’s rate of 19.3% of new confirmed weekly infections requiring hospital stays, the rate fell to 8% during the week of June 28 before ticking up to 9.8% last week.
Amid the increasing number of cases, though, the 670 total hospitalizations last week were the highest number in at least eight weeks.
Dispatch Reporter Lucas Sullivan contributed to this story. rludlow@dispatch.com @Randyludlow