Some travelers visiting New York City are now required by law to sign a quarantine form to gain access to their hotel rooms – and those who fail to comply may be committed to hospitals.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order Tuesday requiring all hotels and short-term rental facilities with travelers from restricted states to fill out quarantine forms – complete with contact information– before giving access to rooms.
“In addition to civil penalties and monetary fines, you may be subject to civil commitment until you comply with these important provisions of law,” New York Sheriff Joseph Fucito said at the press conference, adding that his office was working with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to enforce De Blasio’s latest order.
NEW YORK, CONNECTICUT, NEW JERSEY ADD ALASKA, DELAWARE TO QUARANTINE LIST
“If you have a choice in travel, don’t go where the problem is,” de Blasio said. “For your own safety, for your family’s safety, for all New Yorkers’ safety, because of course if you go there, there’s a chance you bring that disease back.”
Starting Wednesday, new highway checkpoints will be set up at key entry points into New York City. Those who travel to hot spots states and fail to quarantine for 14 days upon their return are committing a Class B misdemeanor and could face a $10,000 fine. In addition to that, the new executive order also makes it a crime not to fill out the quarantine form.
Alaska and Delaware were added Tuesday to the travel advisory list for the tri-state area compiled by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont. No states were removed. Now 33 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are considered COVID-19 hot spots.
States are added if they have a high infection rate of 10 infections per 100,000 residents on a seven-day rolling average or 10 percent of the state’s total population infected on a seven-day rolling average.
The only states not on the list as of Tuesday were Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan and New York.
Meanwhile, the de Blasio administration has worked to move the city’s homeless population into posh hotels in order to free up space in shelters and provide adequate social distancing since the onset of the pandemic.
Roughly 20 percent of New York City hotels are now used as homeless shelters, and residents in higher-end Manhattan neighborhoods like the Upper West Side have voiced concern over increased crime, as hundreds of newly relocated homeless men catcall pedestrians, urinate and defecate on the street and use and deal drugs in the open.
De Blasio also promoted “Get Tested Tuesday” and urged New Yorkers to visit some 200 free COVID-19 testing locations set up throughout the five boroughs.
