NYS residents urged to stay away from 40 states, as Arizona, Maryland added to COVID-19 travel advisory

Nonessential interstate travel between Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania discouraged

Gove. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced Arizona and Maryland were added to New York's COVID-19 travel advisory. No areas have been removed. 

The advisory requires individuals who have traveled to New York from areas with significant community spread to quarantine for 14 days. The quarantine applies to any person arriving from an area with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a seven-day rolling average or an area with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a seven-day rolling average.

Neighboring states Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania now meet the criteria for the travel advisory – however, given the interconnected nature of the region and mode of transport between states, Cuomo said a quarantine on these states is not practically viable. That said, New York state highly discourages, to the extent practical, nonessential travel to and from these states while they meet the travel advisory criteria.

"We are now in a situation where 43 states meet the criteria for our travel advisory. This is really a bizarre outcome, considering New York once had the highest infection rate," Cuomo said. "There is no practical way to quarantine New York from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut. There are just too many interchanges, interconnections, and people who live in one place and work in the other. It would have a disastrous effect on the economy and, remember, while we're fighting this public health pandemic, we're also fighting to open up the economy. However, to the extent travel between the states is not essential, it should be avoided."

The full, updated travel advisory list is available below:

1. Alaska
2. Alabama
3. Arkansas
4. Arizona
5. Colorado
6. Delaware
7. Florida
8. Georgia
9. Guam
10. Iowa
11. Idaho
12. Illinois
13. Indiana
14. Kansas
15. Kentucky
16. Louisiana
17. Maryland
18. Michigan
19. Minnesota
20. Missouri
21. Mississippi
22. Montana
23. North Carolina
24. North Dakota
25. Nebraska
26. New Mexico
27. Nevada
28. Ohio
29. Oklahoma
30. Puerto Rico
31. Rhode Island
32. South Carolina
33. South Dakota
34. Tennessee
35. Texas
36. Utah
37. Virginia
38. Wisconsin
39. West Virginia
40. Wyoming