Visits to New York require isolation

Cuomo announces rule for Floridians

The tables have turned in the dispute between the governors of Florida and New York over their coronavirus responses.

Three months after Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a 14-day self-quarantine for travelers from the then-ravaged states of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday those three states will now require Floridians to selfquarantine for the same amount of time.

The decision comes on a day when Florida set another single-day record for new coronavirus cases with 5,509, blowing past the previous record set Saturday by more than 1,400, as well as another 44 reported deaths. The total number of cases in Florida since the outbreak began rose to 109,014, with 3,281 deaths.

About 15.9% of those tested were positive for COVID-19, more than 3% higher than any infection rate in the past month.

In New York, new cases have dropped from 10,553 on April 24 to 581 on Tuesday. The state has seen a total of 388,000 cases and 30,927 deaths. New Jersey has also seen a steady decrease from 3,027 new cases on May 2 to 389 on Tuesday.

Cuomo announced what was called a “travel advisory” at a briefing jointly via video feeds with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, both fellow Democrats.

The advisory will apply to states above a set infection rate, which includes Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas.

Seven of those states are, like Florida, run by Republican governors who have since taken heat for what critics warned was an early reopening. California, a Democratic-run state that has also seen rising infection numbers, was not on the list.

“We now have to make sure the rates continue to drop,” Cuomo said. “We also have to make sure the virus doesn’t come on a plane again.”

Asked for a response, DeSantis’ office referred to an answer the governor gave at

a news conference on Saturday in Tallahassee.

“Please do not quarantine any Floridians in the nursing homes in New York,” he said when asked what he would say to Cuomo if he imposed a quarantine.

At a press conference in Hialeah Gardens Wednesday, DeSantis did acknowledge that “it’s transmitting quicker right now than it did in March in April,” but said the spike was mostly due to more testing among younger age groups.

The self-quarantine order for the New York area is still in effect in Florida, despite DeSantis removing Louisiana from a similar restriction earlier this month.

In March, DeSantis was quick to blame the New York area for most of Florida’s infections, and his complaints almost persuaded President Donald Trump to impose a similar quarantine for New York area travelers nationwide.

DeSantis has also stressed one of the major differences between Florida’s and New York’s coronavirus experiences has been the infection’s effect on nursing homes.

DeSantis banned visitation at nursing homes in March and prohibited moving infected patients back into long term care facilities. About 4,100 current and former residents have tested positive in such facilities, along with 2,547 staff, and there have been about 1,600 deaths.

In New York, the state did not ban moving infected patients back to nursing homes, and more than 6,000 nursing home and long-term facility residents have died. Cuomo has said New York was simply following the rules set by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which mandate nursing homes accept “only those residents for whom it can provide adequate care.”

“We followed federal guidance on the nursing homes,” Cuomo said Tuesday on NBC’s “Today Show.”