New York City Begins Registering Travelers at COVID-19 Checkpoints

August 7, 2020 in News by RBN Staff

 

Source: Need To Know | ABC News

New York City has established checkpoints to register visitors and residents returning from interstate travel – and they are required to quarantine for 14 days. The official explanation is that this is needed to forestall a second wave of COVID-19. Teams now are stopping travelers arriving in the city by train, requiring them to complete a health-status form, and advising that they face fines as high as $10,000 for failing to quarantine. Checkpoints currently do not involve the police, but the city’s Sheriff’s Office said motorists coming into the city on bridges will be stopped at random. If people who are required to quarantine for 14 days cannot be reached by phone, contact tracers will be sent to their homes to determine if citizens have obeyed the demands. Officials say that the effort relies on voluntary compliance – for now. -GEG

New York City opened new traveler checkpoints Thursday to register visitors and residents returning from nearly three dozen states who are required to quarantine for 14 days — an initiative that drew swift criticism from privacy advocates.

The checkpoints, targeting busy entry points like Penn Station, are more of an awareness campaign than a blockade, intended to preserve the city’s progress reducing its COVID-19 infection rate and forestall a second wave as the coronavirus ravages other states.

Authorities said this week a fifth of all new coronavirus cases in New York City have been from travelers entering the city from other states.

The random checks are similar to an effort already in place at airports and includes offers of free food delivery and in some cases even hotel stays for people who must quarantine.

Teams began stopping travelers arriving in the city by train Thursday, requiring they complete a state Department of Health traveler form and warning they could face fines as high as $10,000 for failing to quarantine.

The checkpoints don’t involve the police, but the city’s Sheriff’s Office, which enforces civil law, said it would pull over motorists at random on city bridges.

“If we’re going to hold at this level of health and safety in this city and get better, we have to deal with the fact that the quarantine must be applied consistently to anyone who’s traveled,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Despite the specter of fines, the checkpoints are more educational than punitive, and officials acknowledged the effort relies on voluntary compliance.

“We’re not going to be in everyone’s apartment monitoring them,” de Blasio said. “Even if we’re not going to be able to reach every single person with a checkpoint, I think it’s going to help really get the message across.”

The campaign was criticized for sowing confusion and raising questions about how travelers’ personal information would be retained.

It’s not clear how long the registration checkpoints will remain in place. De Blasio said the city will use the approach “for as long as we think makes sense and as extensively as we think makes sense.”

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