New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that he would implement checkpoints throughout the five boroughs to enforce the state travel advisory for people visiting from coronavirus hot spots.
“The checkpoints are going to send a very powerful message that this quarantine is serious. Even if we can’t reach every single person, I think it’ll get the message across,” de Blasio said Wednesday.
De Blasio’s announcement is the first to come out in an effort to enforce a travel advisory implemented by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, along with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, mandating that people visiting the three states from hot spot states must quarantine for 14 days.
The mayor said that Cuomo was “absolutely right” to implement the travel advisory, which applies to visitors from 34 states that are currently experiencing increased human to human transmission of COVID-19.
“We don’t want to penalize people,” de Blasio said. “We want to educate them, make sure they’re following the rules.”
New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are taking several aggressive measures to prevent a second wave of the coronavirus in the tri-state area, which was the original epicenter in the United States. New York City alone has reported more than 18,000 coronavirus-related deaths.
Nationwide, 4.7 million infections have been confirmed in the U.S. and about 157,000 people have died.