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Aiming to bolster quarantine enforcement, Gov. Andrew Cuomo says air travelers from states with significant coronavirus spread will have to provide their contact information or face a $2,000 fine.

Besides the fine, air travelers who refuse to give the information can be brought to a hearing and ordered to complete mandatory quarantine, said the third-term governor Monday.

"We can't be in a situation where we have people coming from other states in the country bringing the virus," the third-term Democrat said.

It's unclear if the intensified enforcement of the quarantine mandates will lead to new legal challenges.

Last month, New York required people entering the state to quarantine for 14 days if they are coming from states with significant coronavirus spread.

The move was codified in an executive order, which stipulated that a violation of a quarantine or isolation order could lead to a $10,000 civil penalty.

The order applies to people traveling from states with a positive test rate that is more than 10 per 100,000 residents, or a state that exceeds a 10% positivity rate, over a seven-day rolling average.

As of Tuesday, the quarantine requirement applies to people coming to New York from 22 states across the nation, including Florida, California and Texas. 

An emergency health order Monday says all travelers subject to the executive order must complete a travel form. The electronic form asks for their name, phone number, date of arrival in New York and their method of transportation into the state, among other information.

Mary Beth Quaranta Morrissey, an attorney who focuses on health and public health law, said the state's moves highlight the dynamic between public health protections and civil liberties. But, the efforts from the Cuomo administration are on sound legal ground. 

"We're not operating under normal conditions," she said.

Cheryl Kraus, an attorney at Rivera Law, said public health orders have been used previously. But now, she said there's more attention to the state's moves because they impact more people and the response to the pandemic has been politicized.

When it comes to the travel forms, airlines will hand out the forms on the plane and they will also be available online, Cuomo said Monday.

"You must give officials at the airport your form, as to where you came from and where you're going, before you leave the airport," he said. It will be enforced at every airport in the state.

James Lytle, senior counsel at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, said a legal challenge solely over the asking of contact information would not be successful in court.

But the quarantine mandate could be tougher to defend in certain situations, he said. That could be a situation where a traveler from a designated state was forced to quarantine in New York, even though they came from a remote area with a low infection rate and were able to show they posed no risk, he said.

To safely quarantine, a person must not be in public and must have the ability to self-quarantine from others in the household as soon as symptoms develop, according to interim guidance from the state's Department of Health. It says food should be delivered to the person's quarantine quarters, too. 

A federal lawsuit has challenged Cuomo's authority to require people to quarantine if they come to New York from certain states. 

It was brought by an Arizona resident who planned to fly to New York to help pack up a home.

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