De Blasio officials make last-minute plea for New Yorkers to cancel Thanksgiving travel plans
Authorities won’t police families’ private Thanksgiving gatherings, Mayor de Blasio said Tuesday, but travelers who don’t comply with quarantine rules face fines of $1,000 per day.
“We’re going to be very careful about large public gatherings … we obviously will intervene to stop,” Hizzoner said at a press conference. “Each individual family is going to make their own choice … there’s certainly not going to be any enforcement in terms of families.”
De Blasio and Gov. Cuomo have spent weeks urging New Yorkers to avoid holiday travel as coronavirus surges throughout the country.
Officials reiterated the message Tuesday, emphasizing fines for people who don’t play by the rules.
“It is not too late to cancel your travel plans,” said Dr. Dave Chokshi, the city’s health commissioner. “Now is the moment to make a difference in this next wave of the pandemic.”
For those who do travel, state law requires a 14-day quarantine if they’re coming back from anywhere beyond states that touch New York.
People can opt-out of quarantine by testing negative both before coming back to New York and again four days after their return.
Those caught violating quarantine face fines of $1,000 per day.
“The Test and Trace team does a significant amount of outreach to people and follow up,” said city Sheriff Joseph Fucito. “If they feel that there is a violation, they may ask the sheriff’s office to get involved to look a little bit further.”
De Blasio’s office did not immediately answer an inquiry asking how many people have already been fined for violating quarantine.
The city is giving away COVID “self-test” kits at JFK Airport’s JetBlue terminal to facilitate the process of opting out of quarantine, according to Dr. Ted Long of the Test and Trace program.
De Blasio struck a personal note while urging people to shun Thanksgiving travel.
“I’m not going to see some of the people I love most,” he said. “I normally traveled almost every Thanksgiving. I’m not doing that, and I’m going to miss people just painfully.
“But for the folks in other places, I’m going to connect with them virtually,” he added. “It won’t be as good … but it will count.”
