Trump Says Quarantining New York & New Jersey ‘Will Not Be Necessary’ After Earlier Suggesting It

President Donald Trump, after suggesting he might impose a quarantine on New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, announced that a quarantine wouldn’t be necessary. 

The quarantine would have been an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the area. New York, as of Sunday, has over 59,000 cases. New York currently has about half of the cases in the United States. 

Trump tweeted that instead, the White House would impose a “strong travel advisory” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC then released a statement urging New York, New Jersey and Connecticut residents to avoid “non-essential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately.” The advisory does not apply to “critical infrastructure” service providers, including healthcare professionals and food suppliers.

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 @CDCgov to issue a strong Travel Advisory, to be administered by the Governors, in consultation with the….

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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020

Trump told reporters on Saturday “We’d like to see [it] quarantined because it’s a hotspot… I’m thinking about that.” He added, “They’re having problems down in Florida. A lot of New Yorkers are going down. We don’t want that.”

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo did not agree with the president’s initial plan to quarantine the state, saying the idea was  “preposterous” and “anti-American”.

“If you said we were geographically restricted from leaving, that would be a lockdown,” Cuomo said, adding that New York already implemented “quarantine” measures. Those measures include banning large gatherings and ordering people to stay home. 

“Then we would be Wuhan, China, and that wouldn’t make any sense,” he told CNN, adding that instating such a quarantine would “paralyse the financial sector.”

In a press briefing on Saturday, Cuomo said, “I don’t know how that can be legally enforceable. And from a medical point of view, I don’t know what you would be accomplishing. But I can tell you, I don’t even like the sound of it.”