Review: Emerging fortresses: Three states try to restrict travelers from hot spots

Home/Review: Emerging fortresses: Three states try to restrict travelers from hot spots

Review: Emerging fortresses: Three states try to restrict travelers from hot spots

Multiple states (including TX, RI, MA, FL) have adopted policies restricting travel into their states from outbreak hot spots.

  • While Texas has not yet adopted a state-wide shelter-in-place policy, they have established a policy ordering a 14-day self-quarantine for any travelers to Texas by air from outbreak hot spots, including New York, New Orleans, California, and Washington.
  • Rhode Island’s Governor had initially passed an executive order aimed at stopping New Yorkers from traveling into the state, instructing the state police to stop motorists with New York license plates on the interstate to inform them of their obligation to self-quarantine for 14 days, and ordering the state’s national guard units to go door to door in beach communities to inform New Yorkers who planned to wait out the epidemic at their vacation homes of their quarantine obligation. After being threatened by a lawsuit by New York Governor Cuomo, Rhode Island amended their order to require quarantine by any out-of-state traveler (paralleling a similar policy recently adopted by Massachusetts).
  • Florida’s Governor has passed a similar Executive Order subjecting people flying from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to mandatory 14-day self-quarantines. There are reports coming from Florida indicating that travelers driving from New York also are being stopped at highway checkpoints and asked to be screened. While the state has declared an emergency, and closed all bars and nightclubs for 30 days, it has not adopted a statewide stay-at-home policy. However, on Monday announced he is imposing a “Safer at Home” order on several Southeastern Florida counties.
|2020-04-01T09:29:12-04:00March 31st, 2020|COVID-19 Literature|Comments Off on Review: Emerging fortresses: Three states try to restrict travelers from hot spots

About the Author: Ross Silverman

Ross Silverman
Ross D. Silverman, JD, MPH, is Professor of Health Policy and Management at Indiana University Fairbanks School of Public Health and Professor of Public Health and Law at Indiana University McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis. He is a member of the IU Centers on Health Policy and Bioethics. His research focuses on public health and medical law, policy, and ethics, and law's impact on health outcomes and vulnerable populations. He also serves as Associate Editor on Legal Epidemiology for Public Health Reports, the official journal of the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service. His most recent Covid-19 publications include: "Ensuring Uptake of Vaccines Against SARS-CoV-2" in the New England Journal of Medicine (with MM Mello & SB Omer), and "Covid-19: control measures must be equitable and inclusive" in BMJ (with ZD Berger, NG Evans & AL Phelan)

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