COVID-19: U.S. Northeast states discourage travel; California rebuffs theme parks

COVID-19: U.S. Northeast states discourage travel; California rebuffs theme parks New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on Tuesday urged their residents to not travel between the three states as the U.S. Northeast sees a rise in COVID-19 cases, while California said major theme parks including Disneyland would not be opening anytime soon. Jonathan Allen, Dan Whitcomb U.S.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on Tuesday urged their residents to not travel between the three states as the U.S. Northeast sees a rise in COVID-19 cases, while California said major theme parks including Disneyland would not be opening anytime soon.

The moves in two of the most populous regions of the United States came during a new surge in coronavirus infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 300,000 more people had died nationwide in 2020 than in a typical year.

The CDC said about two-thirds of those deaths were caused directly by COVID-19 illnesses. The health agency did not provide specific explanations for the rest of the fatalities, but said it expects them to be related to coronavirus.

The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, all Democrats, in a joint statement urged “all of our residents to avoid unnecessary or non-essential travel between states at this time.”

The governors, however, said they would not attempt to impose quarantines on visitors from neighboring states. New York, an early epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic and home to more COVID-19 deaths than any other state, requires travelers from 38 states and two U.S. territories where cases are rising to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.

Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania now also meet New York’s criteria for the quarantine requirements, Governor Andrew Cuomo said, but implementing such restrictions would be impractical.

In California, which uses a complex, color-coded tiered system to determine when each of the state’s 58 counties may reopen, health secretary Mark Ghaly said major theme parks must wait until their home county reaches the lowest rank of the system to reopen. ...