Three States Ask Visitors From Oklahoma To Quarantine For Two Weeks

Recently, the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut mandated people visiting from states considered COVID-19 hotspots, including Oklahoma, must quarantine for 14 days.

It's now affecting Oklahomans who had plans to visit New York and New Jersey.

"It was a little nerve-wracking." Donna Pepper said.

That's how Donna Pepper felt when she arrived in New York City last Tuesday to help her daughter move into a new apartment.

"You could almost not find another person. There were no cars on the street," she said.

Pepper said every person she saw wore a mask, some restaurants had plexiglass between tables, and hardly anybody went in public unless they had to.

She said even the subway was spotless.

"It's normally packed with buses and cars and work trucks," she said.

On Tuesday, governors in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut added Oklahoma to the list of states from which visitors have to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.

The list includes 19 states with a certain rate of positive tests.

"It affects a lot of people in a lot of different ways," she said.

Pepper said she's lucky to have gone north before the quarantine order, because others like Amy Bates, who has a trip planned in a few weeks for her son to visit colleges in New York and New Jersey, now has to rethink things.

"That's something they work for their whole life for, and it's a big decision," Bates said about the school her son picks. "It's a little disheartening."

Pepper said now that she's back in Tulsa, she hopes people here take COVID-19 seriously.

"I felt a little safer being there where everybody was taking the precautions," Pepper said.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said late last month that people who don't voluntarily quarantine for 14 days are subject to fines and a mandatory quarantine.