President Trump on Saturday floated the idea of enacting a statewide quarantine on New York, as well as parts of New Jersey and Connecticut.
That didn’t go over so well with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The governor said Saturday in an interview with CNN that he didn’t think a quarantine was legal and that it would be a “federal declaration of war.”
“It would be chaos and mayhem,” Cuomo told CNN’s Ana Cabrera. “It’s totally opposite everything he’s been saying. I don’t think it is plausible. I don’t think it is legal.”
“This would be a federal declaration of war on states,” Cuomo said.
Trump on Saturday said he is considering an “enforceable” quarantine on New York state, as well as parts of New Jersey and Connecticut.
“We’d like to see New York quarantined because it’s a hot spot — New York, New Jersey, maybe one or two other places, certain parts of Connecticut quarantined. I’m thinking about that right now. 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,” Trump said.
“This will be an enforceable quarantine, but hopefully we won’t need it,” he said. “We’re looking at it and we’ll be making a decision,” the president said. “It will be for a short time if we do it at all.”
At a news conference Saturday afternoon, Andrew Cuomo said he hadn’t heard about about the president’s thoughts on quarantining the state.
“I didn’t speak to him about any quarantine,” he said. “I don’t know how that could be legally enforceable, and from a medical point of view, I don’t know what you would be accomplishing,” he added. “Not even understanding what it is, I don’t like the sound of it.”
In his press conference, the governor said the number of confirmed cases in the state now stands at 52,318, including 29,766 in New York City. A total of 728 people in the state have died, Cuomo said.
Cuomo also announced that the peak number of COVID-19 cases in New York is still 14 to 21 days away, according to estimates.
Still, Trump said people leaving New York is a problem. “Restrict travel because they are having problems down in Florida. A lot of New Yorkers going down, we don’t want that,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
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