The Peru Gazette

Today I announced, along with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, a joint initiative that requires all individuals traveling to NY, NJ or CT from listed states with significant community spread of COVID-19 to quarantine for a 14-day period upon arrival.

This advisory goes into effect tonight at midnight and as of today, it applies to anyone traveling from Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington. (The list of states will be updated online as the data changes).

Throughout this entire pandemic, we’ve worked closely with our neighbors and will continue to do so because our tri-state region is interconnected, and what happens in New York happens in New Jersey and happens in Connecticut, too. New Yorkers have come together to get the viral transmission rate down and we don’t want to see it go up again because people are traveling into the state and bringing the virus with them. We’ve gone through hell once — we don’t want to go through it again.

Video of the Day: Nine years ago today, New York passed the Marriage Equality Act and today we celebrate love. Watch the video here.

1. Five regions of New York are on track to enter Phase 4 of reopening on Friday. The metrics in the Finger Lakes, Central New York, Southern Tier, Mohawk Valley and the North Country continue trending in the right direction. Phase 4 permits indoor religious gatherings at 33% of capacity, and allows low-risk indoor and outdoor arts and entertainment, film and TV production and professional sports without fans. Read more about Phase 4 here.

2. Social gatherings of up to 50 people will be allowed as part of Phase 4. Currently, gatherings of up to 25 people are permitted in regions that are in Phase 3.

3. The MTA Subway system had more than 1 million daily riders yesterday, the highest since the COVID-19 crisis began. Ridership is still far below its pre-COVID daily weekday average of 7+ million riders. Every single day, every single subway car is disinfected and cleaned, just one of the several precautions undertaken to protect the health of passengers.

4. A note on malls, movie theaters and gyms. These industries are unusually risky from a health standpoint. The State is undertaking further study to ensure we make informed decisions before reopening these businesses.

5. The total number of COVID hospitalizations continues to decline. Total hospitalizations fell to 1,071, from 1,104 the previous day. Sadly, 17 people in New York passed away due to COVID-19.

6. Yesterday, the State tested 51,144 people. Only 581, or 1%, were positive.

Tonight’s “Deep Breath Moment”: To make sure that every subway rider has the right tools to combat Coronavirus, a team of MTA carpenters started building wooden hand sanitizer dispensers by hand. In less than two weeks, hundreds of these birdhouse-like dispensers have been mounted in 472 subway stations across NYC.

Ever Upward,

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo