To continue the fight of the spread of the COVID-19, New York City will carry out checkpoints in crucial entry points across the city.
What We Know:
- Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday COVID-19 checkpoints would be placed at key entry points across the city. The checkpoints, which will go into effect Wednesday, were imposed to enforce the tri-state area’s travel advisory. Locations will vary daily, the mayor said.
- Checkpoints leading into New York City will enforce a quarantine order for people coming from states with high rates of COVID-19, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday. They will vary daily, as the NYC Sheriff’s office said the first checkpoint started Wednesday evening on the Staten Island side of the Goethals Bridge, Bayonne Bridge, and the Outerbridge Crossing, as well as the Holland Tunnel and Lincoln Tunnel. The mayor said one would appear at Penn Station on Thursday, and another is planned for Port Authority.
- The plan announced Wednesday is the first significant attempt by New York City, especially to help apply the 14-day quarantine for travelers from 34 states, including Puerto Rico. De Blasio said the state was “absolutely right” to impose the travel limitation in the first place. Cuomo had announced it in late June.
- The mayor accepted the challenges with how checkpoints will be implemented, but “the important thing is checkpoints will send a powerful message that this quarantine law is important and crucial,” he stated.
- The governor has said the quarantine itself is not perfect, and Mayor de Blasio admitted New York City’s new enforcement plan has some red flags. But the idea, the mayor stated, is to send a strong message to people coming in.
“The checkpoints are going to send a compelling 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. “We don’t want to penalize people, and we want to educate them, make sure they’re following the rules.”
- Travelers who land at New York airports need to fill out a form for contact tracing purposes. The same requirements also apply for travelers coming to the state by train, bus, or car, although travelers who arrive by those means are more likely to escape.
Travelers will be given the state contact forms to be filled out. Anyone who refuses into submitting the form can result in mandatory quarantine and a $2,000 fine, while failure to obey the order can suffer up to a $10,000 civil penalty.
