Maryland Added To COVID-19 Travel Advisory Lists In New York, New Jersey, Connecticut Because Of Spike In New Case Rate
NEW YORK (WJZ) -- Maryland once again finds itself on a coronavirus-related travel advisory list for three states in the Northeast.
On Tuesday, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced Maryland and 34 other states have new case rates alarming enough to call for a two-week quarantine.
"Individuals coming from other states continue to be a problem," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said Tuesday. "We now have 35 high-risk states in this country, which is incredible. Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, and West Virginia have been added."
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Cuomo added he's concerned a sick person visiting from out-of-state could become a super spreader and lead to numerous new cases.
Maryland made the list of states from which travelers must self-quarantine for two weeks because of a spike in new case rates. Other states were added because of a positivity rate of higher than 10 percent.
"The amount of virus that's in any state is a pretty bottom-line indicator. I think there's a lot of logic that you would take a hard look at those numbers and use those numbers to dictate policy," Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins of coronavirus case tracking website Covid Act Now said.
Though not the reason to add Maryland to the advisory list, there is a discrepancy between positivity rates. The state's health department reports a slight increase in the positivity rate to 3.7 percent, though Johns Hopkins and others put the rate at more than six percent.
"Some people are using Celsius. Some people are using Fahrenheit. There's no universal standard and that leads to a lot of, sort of, errors in interpretation," Kreiss-Tompkins said.
In a statement, Hopkins epidemiologist Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo said, "it is inappropriate to use test positivity as the basis for high consequence decisions such as interstate quarantine, as positivity is a measure of how much testing a state is doing and not a direct measure of the level of illness a state is experiencing."
In response to Maryland being added to the trio of states' lists, a spokesperson for Gov. Larry Hogan cited the number of people in intensive care with COVID-19 -- 95, the lowest it's been since March.
Travel advisories have exemptions for essential workers.
To read each state's order, click below:
For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.