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President Donald Trump said a two-week quarantine for parts of the New York, Connecticut, New Jersey tristate area most affected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will not be necessary.
Trump tweeted at 8:19 p.m. Saturday, March 28: "On the recommendation of the White House CoronaVirus Task Force, and upon consultation with the Governor’s of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, I have asked the CDC to issue a strong Travel Advisory, to be administered by the governors, in consultation with the Federal Government. A quarantine will not be necessary. Full details will be released by CDC tonight. Thank you!"
Earlier in the day, Trump floated the idea of the 14-day "forced quarantine" for residents in portions of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, though many questioned its legality or if he had the power to issue it. Trump did not reveal all the areas that may be covered.
"I'm considering it very strongly," Trump said on Saturday afternoon, March 28 at ceremonies in Norfolk, Virginia, marking the launch of the 1,000-bed US Navy Hospital Ship Comfort to New York Harbor. "I'll have an announcement either way very shortly."
The quarantine measure was reportedly introduced to Trump by a political ally, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who earlier this week said those from the New York area who come to Florida need to self-quarantine for 14 days, though no executive order was made.
New York, Connecticut and New Jersey account for around 65,000 of the total cases of 85,356 in the nation.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he had not discussed the possible measure with Trump and questioned its legality.
In an interview on CNN prior to Trump's announcement it would not be issued, Cuomo said: "As far as the quote, unquote quarantine, which means a lot of different things now obviously in this environment - but that's where we are, that's what we're doing."
Cuomo added: "Well, that's not a quarantine. That would be a lockdown. If you said that we are geographically confining people, that would be a lockdown. Then we would be Wuhan, China, right? And that wouldn't make any sense.
"This is a time when the president says he's trying to restart the economy, New York is the financial sector. You geographically restrict a state, you would paralyze the financial sector. You think the Dow Jones, the stock market has gone down - it would drop like a stone. I don't even believe it's legal. Interstate commerce clause, et cetera.
"So I think it would be exactly opposite of everything the president is talking about. How would you ever operationally stop goods from coming to New York and New Jersey and Connecticut and food and trucks, et cetera? I can't believe he's considering that. ...
"And by the way, if you wanted to start to do that, that would ripple all across the country. It's New York, New Jersey, Connecticut today, tomorrow it's New Orleans, the day after Detroit. Then it's Texas, then it's Florida, then it's California."
Earlier Saturday, the state of Rhode Island began advising motorists in vehicles with New York license plates about the state's quarantine guidelines, including knocking on doors of homes.
"With Rhode Island, they're a neighboring state," Cuomo said. "I think what they did was wrong, I think it was reactionary, I think it was illegal, but we'll work it out amicably I'm sure.
"We have conversations going back and forth. No state should be using police to prohibit interstate travel in any way."
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