Dear Students,
We wanted to follow-up with you on a communication we sent on October 9th regarding travel guidelines. Governor Andrew Cuomo recently changed the New York Travel Advisory Guidelines to create one rule that applies across the country. These changes, which went into effect this week, allow out-of-state-travelers to test out of the mandatory 14-day quarantine.
For any Travelers from States Bordering New York State (NJ, CT, PA, MA, VT):
- Travelers from states that border New York will continue to be exempt from quarantine protocol.
For any traveler to New York State, exempting bordering states (NJ, CT, PA, MA, VT), the new guidelines for travelers to test out of the mandatory 14-day quarantine are below:
For travelers who were in another state for more than 24 hours:
- Travelers must have proof of a negative COVID test taken no more than 3 days before arrival in New York.
- Travelers must quarantine for three days upon arrival to New York.
- On the fourth day in New York, travelers must be re-tested for COVID and receive a negative PCR result. A rapid test result will not be accepted.
- Travelers must provide proof of the negative tests to healthalert@mercy.edu and/or hr@mercy.edu in order to be approved to return to campus.
For travelers who were in another state for less than 24 hours:
- The traveler does not need a test prior to their departure from the other state and does not need to quarantine upon arrival in New York State.
- However, the traveler must fill out the upon entry into New York State, and take a PCR COVID test 4 days after their arrival in New York. A rapid test result will not be accepted.
If a residential student chooses to travel out-of-state (not including bordering states) they would need to make arrangements to quarantine off campus for three days and provide a negative PCR COVID test result on the fourth day before returning to their residential space on campus.
The COVID-19 Addendum to the Student Handbook that was first distributed at the beginning of the fall term, has been updated to reflect the new travel guidelines as well as the recent information about surveillance testing of the Mercy community.
Sincerely,
Kevin Joyce
Vice President