#Cuomo talking to NJ, Connecticut about quarantine guidelines for Floridians

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo is actively talking to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont about mapping out mandatory quarantine “guidelines” for individuals traveling into the tristate area from Florida and other states seeing spikes in COVID-19 cases.

Cuomo said the trio is “seriously considering” implementing a 14-day isolation for Floridians and that could be extended to travelers coming from Texas, Arizona and at least 20 other states.

“The virus is up and more people are getting sick and now our fear in New York is those people are going to travel to New York and they could bring the virus with them,” the third-term Democrat said on MSNBC Monday morning, referencing Florida’s recorded rise in coronavirus cases, which Cuomo attributed to their accelerated economic reopening plan — compared to his preferred approach, the Empire State’s slower, phased-in reopening.

“So we are seriously considering, and I’m talking to my neighboring states because for one state to act, it’s more effective if we act as a regional collaboration and I’m talking to them about putting in regional guidelines so we don’t have people coming from these other states.”

“I’m telling you that I get phone calls from people in Florida, etc. saying, ‘We want to come to New York because we’re afraid of the virus.’”

Cuomo slightly walked back his comments during a separate CNN interview shortly after, when asked if he was flip-flopping on his previous threat to sue Rhode Island’s governor for issuing a quarantine directive in March targeting New Yorkers entering the state.

“What they were talking about back then was Rhode Island targeting just New Yorkers. They pulled you over just by your license plate, which I thought was absurd. Florida did put in a quarantine, which I think was more political than anything else, but now we have a very real problem.”

“We now have the lowest infection rate and I’m getting calls all day long, people from Florida, Texas saying, ‘We want to come to New York, we’re afraid to be in Florida and Texas.’ That could actually increase our infection rate,” he said.

“So I’m talking to my neighbors, Governor Murphy in New Jersey, Governor Lamont in Connecticut, about what we do about it. I wouldn’t target a specific state, but we know the transmission rate in every state in the United States,” he added.

Florida’s own 14-day quarantine directive for New Yorkers and other individuals traveling from Northern states is still in place.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday criticized Cuomo for comments last week that he was considering an isolation period for people coming from the Sunshine State into New York.

“I would just ask if that’s done, just please do not quarantine any Floridians in the nursing homes in New York,” said DeSantis at a Tallahassee press conference, jabbing at Cuomo for his controversial handling of the virus in state-regulated nursing homes and a rising death toll of 6,200 individuals in those facilities.

The pair are known to have traded barbs in the past.