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"We'd like to see New York quarantined because it's a hotspot — New York, New Jersey, maybe one or two other places, certain parts of Connecticut quarantined," the president told reporters.
"We might not have to do it, but there's a possibility that sometime today we'll do a quarantine — short term two weeks for New York, probably New Jersey and parts of Connecticut," he said.
Trump followed up with a tweet: “I am giving consideration to a QUARANTINE of developing ‘hot spots’, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. A decision will be made, one way or another, shortly.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday that he wasn’t sure how it could be enforced.
"From a medical point of view, I don't even know what you'd be accomplishing," he added.
The coronavirus has hit the U.S. hardest in New York, with New Jersey a close third behind Louisiana in the number of reported COVID-19 positive cases as of Saturday.
Overall, the United States has more coronavirus-infected people than any other country.
The commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government the authority to isolate and quarantine citizens for the good of the country under an executive order from the president.
A quarantine "separates and restricts the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
Isolation, meanwhile, "separates sick people with a quarantinable communicable disease from people who are not sick," the CDC says.
Among the diseases covered are widespread “severe acute respiratory syndromes,” the centers said.
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