Ohio has been added to a list of states from which people are not allowed to enter New York, New Jersey or Connecticut without first quarantining for 14 days. And business leaders here worry that will hurt Ohio’s companies as they are trying to recover from the effects of the pandemic.
The executive director of the Ohio Federation of Independent Business, Roger Geiger, says the news is troubling.
"We wer l etting their executives and their business leaders and their business folks come to Ohio to do trade and commerce but somehow Ohio businesses are not able to do the same," Geiger said. "I really do think it raises some interstate commerce questions."
Geiger suggests the federal government step in to keep economic commerce open.
The governors from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut came up with an initial list of eight states where positive coronavirus tests made up ten percent or more of those being tested on a seven-day average. This is different from the positivity rate, which has a seven-day moving average of 6.3%. Over the last week, nearly 11 people have tested positive for every 100,000 residents.
The 22 states now on the tri-state quarantine list are as follows:
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Arizona
- California
- Florida
- Georgia
- Iowa
- Idaho
- Kansas
- Louisiana
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- North Carolina
- New Mexico
- Nevada
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Wisconsin
Delaware had been on the list at one point but has since been removed.