ALBANY — Two states were added back onto New York’s travel advisory list Tuesday, as the Empire State also celebrated 25 straight days of a positive COVID-19 infection rate below 1 percent.
Alaska and Montana rejoined the growing list — now at 33 states and other areas like Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands — after recording coronavirus infection rates exceeding New York’s strict metrics.
That means individuals flying or driving into New York, New Jersey or Connecticut need to submit to a mandatory 14-day quarantine period or face up to $2,000 in fines.
State and city officials have upped enforcement efforts this summer, ordering that those flying into airports must complete travel documents tracking where they came from.
New York City has also begun instituting checkpoints and issuing tickets at certain bridges and tunnels to better police out-of-state drivers.
States are added to the list if their positive test rate exceeds 10 percent or higher over a seven-day rolling average, or the positivity rate is higher than 10 of every 100,000 residents over the same period.
The current list includes: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, the Virgin Islands and Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, the statewide infection rate remained below 1 percent following 76,997 total tests conducted.
Seven hundred fifty-four returned positive results, yielding a .98 percent infection rate.
New York City’s metrics also remained below 1 percent over the last three days.
Three New Yorkers died of the deadly bug, 432 total were hospitalized and 109 of that count were committed to ICU hospital beds.
Johns Hopkins University records 32,957 confirmed and presumed COVID-19-related deaths in the state to date.