Minnesota Health Officials Question New York Quarantine List

Minnesota health officials are questioning why the state was added to New York’s quarantine list.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo added Minnesota and three other states — New Mexico, Ohio and Wisconsin — on Tuesday, as he tries to contain the spread of the coronavirus from regions of the country where infection rates are growing.

Minnesota health officials are surprised by the addition because the state appears to be below New York’s announced threshold for travel restrictions.

“We are looking into this as it does not jibe with our data,” Minnesota’s infectious disease director Kris Ehresmann told the Star Tribune in an email Tuesday morning.

The addition of Minnesota and the other three states means that travelers from 22 states will be required to quarantine for 14 days upon entering New York.

New York’s criteria is to restrict travelers from any states in which the daily number of new COVID-19 cases is at least 10 per 100,000 people, or in which the positivity rate of coronavirus tests is above 10%.

Minnesota’s updated COVID-19 dashboard on Tuesday morning showed a daily COVID-19 new case rate of 6 per 100,000 people and a testing positivity rate of only 3%.