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New York City erects quarantine checkpoints to curb coronavirus

A man walks with an umbrella during Tropical Storm Isaias in the Brooklyn borough of New York

By Maria Caspani

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City will put up COVID-19 quarantine checkpoints at key entry points to ensure that incoming travelers from 35 states with outbreaks comply with the state's 14-day quarantine mandate, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday.

The measure underscores the determination of what was once the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak to prevent a resurgence of cases emerging elsewhere. While cases are down 5% nationally, they soared last week in Oklahoma, Montana, Missouri and 17 other states.

On average, 1,000 people die a day nationwide from COVID-19 with the death toll now over 157,000 with 4.8 million cases.(Open https://tmsnrt.rs/2WTOZDR in an external browser for a Reuters interactive graphic)

"Travelers coming in from those states will be given information about the quarantine and will be reminded that it is required, not optional," de Blasio told a news briefing. He added that, under certain circumstances, fines for not observing the quarantine order could be as high as $10,000.

The Sheriff's Office, in coordination with other law enforcement agencies, will begin deploying checkpoints at major bridge and tunnel crossings into New York City on Wednesday.

"This is serious stuff and it's time for everyone to realize that if we're going to hold at this level of health and safety in this city, and get better, we have to deal with the fact that the quarantine must be applied consistently to anyone who's traveled," de Blasio said.

A fifth of all new cases in New York City are from out-of-state travelers, said Dr. Ted Long, who oversees the city's contact tracing program.

Teams will be deployed at Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan on Thursday, he said, to ensure travelers stop to complete a travel form.

"We're going to offer you things like free food delivery, help with medications, direct connections to doctors by the phone, or even a hotel stay," Long added.

The city, which once had over 800 deaths in a single day, has reported no coronavirus fatalities for the past three days and the mayor said the city's infection rate had been under 3% for the past eight weeks.

In March, Rhode Island briefly stopped cars with New York license plates, drawing a rebuke from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

CHICAGO SCHOOLS GO ONLINE

In Illinois, where COVID-19 cases have risen for six weeks in a row, Chicago Public Schools will start the new academic year conducting all classes remotely, school officials said on Wednesday.

Teachers in the district, the country's third largest with 350,000 students, had resisted a plan by city leaders to launch a hybrid model in which parents could choose to have their children attend in-person instruction in pods of 15 pupils twice a week.

The Chicago Teachers Union threatened to strike over safety concerns if city leaders did not go to all-remote learning.

"Nothing about this crisis has been easy," Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. "Every day has been another step into uncharted territory."

Governors, mayors and school district officials across the country have proposed a range of ideas for reopening schools in August and September.

Some districts are restarting with in-person instruction while others are going with online models or a hybrid. Teachers nationwide have protested, saying in-person instruction plans lack necessary safety protocols and remote-learning plans lack the technology required to teach students online.

The Los Angeles Unified School District and the teachers' union have reached a tentative deal to allow the resumption of remote learning in the fall. New York City hopes to have students in classrooms one to three days each week.