Florida has announced it will roll out highway checkpoints to screen New York motorists fleeing the coronavirus hot spot for the Sunshine State.
The checkpoint will be created on Interstate 95 in an attempt to stop the spread of coronavirus through the state’s northern border, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday.
“I think it’s in everybody’s interest that we deal with the spread that we have here now, try to blunt it, flatten the curve, but we don’t allow importing new infections,” the governor said, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
The Sunshine State has already set up a similar measure on Interstate 10 to discourage travel from hard-hit Louisiana, which has seen more than 3,000 cases.
Florida Highway Patrol and sheriff’s deputies started screening cars Friday and requiring Louisiana travelers to self-quarantine for 14 days.
“I think having the (Interstate) 10 and (Interstate) 95 is good, that provides the protection,” DeSantis said, according to the report.
The governor has also already ordered travel restrictions aimed at flights coming from the New York tri-state area.
While travelers flying from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut must self-quarantine for two weeks or face a 60-day jail sentence, it was unclear if motorists hailing from the tri-state would have to follow the same guidelines.
It’s unclear how Florida plans to enforce the mandate, but DeSantis said people could be “held accountable if they buck the law.”
Rhode Island on Saturday night repealed a controversial executive order penalizing New Yorkers for traveling into the state by mandating that they self-quarantine for 14 days.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had slammed the move as “unconstitutional” and threatened legal action against the state.
With Post wires