Employed New Yorkers are at risk of losing their paid sick leave benefits if they travel to states with high rates of coronavirus infection under a new executive order signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
The order applies to anyone who is employed in New York State and voluntarily travels to states with infection rates of 10 percent or more.
States affected, according to Johns Hopkins University COVID-91 infection rate data as of Sunday, are Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, and Texas.
Cuomo signed the order on Friday saying he wanted to keep New York’s progress fighting the pandemic.
Employed New Yorkers are at risk of losing their paid sick leave benefits if they travel to states with high rates of coronavirus infection under a new executive order signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo appears on the Meet The Press news show on Sunday.
The affected states, according to data from the COVID-91 infection rate (pictured) from Johns Hopkins University as of Sunday, are Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, and Texas.
“If we are to maintain the progress we have seen, we need everyone to take personal responsibility,” Cuomo said in a statement, Business Insider reports.
“That is why I am issuing an executive order saying that any New York employee who voluntarily travels to a high-risk state will not be eligible for the COVID protections we create under paid sick leave,” he explained.
Cuomo has touted New York for its efforts to stem the spread of the pandemic as the state has begun reopening since its quarantine closure. The infection rate on Saturday was less than 1 percent statewide.
So far, New York has had more than 392,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, which was attributed to nearly 25,000 deaths.
Nationwide, there have been more than 2.4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 125,000 deaths attributed to the virus.
In mid-March, Cuomo announced guaranteed job protection and extended paid sick leave benefits for all employed New Yorkers who were forced to stay home during the coronavirus pandemic.
New Yorkers were also allowed to claim their benefits if they cared for their home from someone infected with COVID-19.
Under the plan, companies with 100 or more employees must provide at least 14 days of paid sick leave and ensure job protection for the duration of the state’s quarantine order.
Cuomo has touted New York for its efforts to stem the spread of the pandemic as the state has begun reopening since its quarantine closure. Pictured are frontline workers at a COVID-19 mobile testing site in the Bronx earlier this month.
New Yorkers are photographed under temperature controls earlier this month. So far, New York has had more than 392,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, which was attributed to nearly 25,000 deaths.
Employers with 10 or fewer employees and a net income of less than $ 1 million were required to provide job protection for the duration of the state quarantine order and ensure workers had access to paid family leave and disability benefits, including wage replacement, for people who win. at $ 150,000.
The governor’s order comes after he said a New York high school student hired COVID-19 on a recent trip to Florida and infected four other students when they returned for a graduation event June 20 in Westchester County. .
As a result, the state’s contact search team took action to locate people who have come into contact with the unidentified student at Horace Greeley High School in Westchester County.
At that time, the student had not yet developed symptoms of the virus and did not know they were infected.
They had also returned to New York before Cuomo ordered a 14-day quarantine for those arriving in the state from eight coronavirus hotspots, including Florida.
“We are prepared to do the aggressive testing and contact tracing necessary to curb and ultimately control any potential group of new cases like Westchester County,” Cuomo said Friday.
The drive-in graduation ceremony was held at the Chappaqua train station, but attendees said not everyone stayed in their cars, reports The New York Daily News.
Complaints were reportedly circulating on social media that some students were not wearing face masks and were not maintaining a safe social distance.
An infected student later went to a second event after graduation, where they came in contact with students from other schools in the area.
Since then, state health officials have urged anyone who attended the Horace Greeley graduation or second event to remain in quarantine until July 5.
Westchester County was the site of a major group of coronaviruses at the start of the New York state outbreak in March, and officials are desperate to prevent a recurrence of that incident.
The governor’s order comes after he said a student at Horace Greeley High School in Westchester County hired COVID-19 on a recent trip to Florida and infected four other students when they returned for a graduation event on June 20. .
Cuomo also previously issued an order to stop visitors from states where new coronavirus infections are emerging.
The new quarantine applies to states where the infection rate has reached a rate of 10 infections per 100,000 people on a seven-day moving average, or 10 percent of the total population with positive results.
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