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July 7 (UPI) -- New York and New Jersey on Tuesday added travelers from three more states -- Delaware, Kansas and Oklahoma -- to their lists requiring 14 days of quarantine due to the COVID-19 crisis. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said case levels in all three states placed them among 16 others that are already tagged for the two-week quarantine period.
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"New Yorkers did the impossible -- we went from the worst infection rate in the United States to one of the best -- and the last thing we need is to see another spike of COVID-19," Cuomo said.
"Several outbreaks across New Jersey are directly tied to travel from COVID-19 hot spots nationwide," Murphy added. "In order to responsibly continue down our road back to restart and recovery, we must remain vigilant in our collective effort to beat the virus and reduce the rate of transmission."
The quarantine rule applies to travelers from states with a positive test rate higher than 10-per-100,000 residents over a seven-day rolling average -- or states with a positivity rate of 10 percent or greater.
The quarantine rules in New York and New Jersey also apply to travelers from Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
The United States has recorded 2.95 million total cases and about 130,500 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to an update Tuesday afternoon by Johns Hopkins University.
In Florida, health officials have ordered that public schools must reopen in August, even though cases in the state have soared in recent days.
"There is a need to open schools fully to ensure the quality and continuity of the educational process, the comprehensive well-being of students and families and a return to Florida hitting its full economic stride," an order Monday from Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran states.
The order says all public schools must reopen in August for at least five days a week and provide full educational services required by law, including in-person instruction and services for students with special needs.
Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said hospitalizations in his state are up 50 percent over the last two weeks and more young people there are being affected by COVID-19. Health officials in the Los Angeles area say the rising numbers are being driven by a "significant increase" among residents between 18 and 40 years old.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in California set a new record Monday for the 17th consecutive day at nearly 5,700 and the rate of positive tests rose to nearly 7 percent.
In Texas, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has surpassed 200,000, according to updated data from state health officials. Hospitalizations rose to nearly 8,700, setting a record high for the eighth consecutive day.
Although new cases declined slightly on Sunday and Monday, officials say a "big increase" could be coming this week as more local officials tabulate data from the holiday weekend.
"There were a lot of jurisdictions that didn't report new cases with the holiday weekend, particularly on Saturday, which would have showed up in yesterday's update," Texas Department of State Health Services spokesman Chris Van Deusen told the Austin American-Statesman.
