NY discourages travel to Massachusetts, adds CA to advisory

ALBANY, N.Y. – New York’s governor on Tuesday urged residents to avoid nonessential travel to neighbouring Massachusetts, and added California to the state’s COVID-19 advisory list.

Residents from states on New York’s list must self-quarantine for 14 days.

Only seven states, including New York, have reported an average of fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days.

The rest of the nation exceeds that threshold and qualifies for inclusion on New York’s travel advisory, which started as a joint effort this summer with Connecticut and New Jersey.

Massachusetts is the latest of New York’s neighbours to exceed the threshold, joining New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Massachusetts’ average has reached 15.1.

But New York is not adding neighbouring states to its official advisory list. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is instead urging New Yorkers to avoid travelling to the states for now, and says it’s not practical to enforce quarantine rules given the region’s interconnected nature.

New York has averaged 8.9 new cases per 100,000 residents over the last 7 days, according to the state’s online data dashboard.

New York reported nearly 2,000 positive cases Monday, for a total of more than 38,600 positives so far this month. That’s up from about 24,500 new positives in September and 19,700 in August.