NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio says there will be Stepped Up Enforcement of DOH Travel Form Rules

Yesterday, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio stated that his administration would be reaching out to the private sector to help expand upon the enforcement of COVID-19 related travel regulations. Such requirements involve the filling out of the Department of Health (DOH) Travel Form and self quarantine for those who have traveled to locales listed on New York’s Travel Advisory.

Earlier this week, after signing Executive Order 141, NYC Mayor de Blasio said the mandate would “be part of a series of stepped up actions to make clear just how serious this quarantine is.”

Yesterday, we asked the mayor to elaborate on what he meant by “stepped up actions” as they related to quarantine enforcement.

“We’re working with the hotel industry as part of the executive order – many more pieces coming – you know, the checkpoints – but there will be more enforcement and we’re going to deepen the effort to get every part of the private sector that works with people traveling to be a part of this and to help us on the front end to make sure that people are signing up those forms,” said Mayor de Blasio.

“Look, the best of all worlds is for someone to have filled out that form before they even come through the border into the five boroughs. So, that’s what we’re moving towards, but we’ll have a lot more to say on that in the next few days.”

For anyone unfamiliar, these actions revolve around that which was instituted by NY Governor Andrew Cuomo on July 13 as well as the ‘Emergency Health Order’ issued by the NY DOH requiring out-of-state travelers from designated states to complete the DOH Traveler Form upon entering New York State. On that same day, the Governor announced the formation of a Travel Enforcement Operation at all of the state’s airports with possible hefty fines and mandatory quarantine for anyone refusing to abide by these newly introduced mandates.

For some time, the Governor’s spoken of his concerns about a second COVID-19 wave coming to New York from those states badly affected by the pandemic.

At the moment of this writing, there are now 35 states on the Travel Advisory Watch-list. Some states have been placed back on the list not too long after having been removed.