Texas has joined Hawaii in imposing a 14-day quarantine on incoming travelers.   For Hawaii, that means anybody arriving by air or ship to any island.  For Texas, that now means diverting incoming cars from Louisiana to police checkpoints.  Texas law enforcement asks anybody coming in where they plan to spend their 14-day quarantine.

The Texas Department of Health COVID-19 Dashboard reports that as of Wednesday, April 8, there are 9,353 cases of COVID-19 confirmed, with 177 fatalities.  The population of Texas is 28.7 million.   But in neighboring Louisiana, according to the Louisiana State Department of Health, there have been 17,030 reported cases, with 652 deaths.  Louisiana’s population is approximately 4.66 million.

Louisiana is considered one of the nation’s COVID-19 “hotspots,” partly as a result of the virus thought to be spread during Mardi Gras celebrations at the end of February, which always draw hundreds of thousands of people, jammed together in small spaces and along streets.

New York State continues to have the most cases in the United States, with 149,316 cases.   Governor Andrew Cuomo today said there have been 6,268  deaths in the state,  but New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio noted that the death toll is actually higher because of deaths at home that are not officially linked to COVID-19 because the individuals were not tested.  The New York City Health Department has reported just over 3,500 deaths.  DeBlasio in a Wednesday interview urged the public to continue to take COVID-19 extremely seriously and to isolate and quarantine as appropriate.