New York to Force Visiting Travelers to Take Two Coronavirus Tests

New York state will now require travelers entering the state to take a COVID-19 test prior to travelling to New York and again four days after entering the state. The new requirement was announced by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Saturday, ending the state’s quarantine list which had previously restricted travel into New York from 41 hotspots elsewhere in the United States. That quarantine list itself had been recently updated. Cuomo made the announcement of the new guidelines during his daily press briefing (via Deadline) as reported cases across the country increase.

Per the new orders, all people entering New York must quarantine for at least three days before taking a coronavirus test on day four. For those entering New York from outside the area or for residents who were away for more than 24 hours, a test is required before travelling to New York as well as the test three days after arrival. Residents who were outside of the state for less than 24 hours do not need to test before returning. Additionally, the testing mandate will not apply to New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, states that border New York. Cuomo said that the amount of daily travel between those states would result in a disruption if the quarantine applied.

“It would disrupt everything if you quarantined those states,” Cuomo said.

The new mandate does allow for people to opt out of the testing, but those who chose to do that will be required to quarantine for 14 days. The new mandate also replaces the previous quarantine list that had required travelers to New York from 41 “hotspots” in the United States to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival.

“They’ll be no quarantine list; they’ll be no metrics” Cuomo said.

You can check out the official guidelines below.

For any traveler to New York State from out of state, exempting the contiguous states, the new guidelines for travelers to test-out of the mandatory 14-day quarantine are below:

For travelers who were in another state for more than 24 hours:

Travelers must obtain a test within three days of departure from that state.
The traveler must, upon arrival in New York, quarantine for three days.
On day 4 of their quarantine, the traveler must obtain seek another COVID test. If both tests come back negative, the traveler may exit quarantine early upon receipt of the second negative diagnostic test.

For travelers who were in another state for less than 24 hours:+

The traveler does not need a test prior to their departure from the other state and does not need to quarantine upon arrival in New York State.
However, the traveler must fill out the traveler information form upon entry into New York State, and take a COVID diagnostic test 4 days after their arrival in New York.

You can check out the official press release regarding the new guidelines here.

What do you think of New York’s new mandate? Let us know in the comments.

Photo: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images