The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, attacked this Saturday the idea of ​​a mandatory quarantine in this state raised by the U.S. President, Donald Trump, and stated that such a measure would be a "declaration of war on the states."

"It would be chaos and mayhem," said Democrat Cuomo in an interview with CNN, in which he questioned the legality of the two-week quarantine that Trump has said he is weighing and that it would affect New York, neighbor New Jersey and parts of Connecticut.



New York has become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and already accumulates more than 52,000 confirmed cases, almost half of the total registered in the country.



"As governor, I am not going to close my borders," said Cuomo, who considered that a measure thus decreed from Washington would be "a declaration of war on the states" and doubted that Trump would seek that.



"It totally goes against everything he has been saying. I do not think it is possible. I do not think it is legal," insisted the New York politician.



Trump assured this Saturday that he "would like to see a quarantine in New York because it is a hot spot."



"New York, New Jersey and maybe one or two other places, some parts of Connecticut," he noted.



"I'm thinking about it now. We may not do it, but there is a chance that at some point today, we will impose one," the president told reporters in Washington.



Later, Trump specified that he would make a decision "soon" and clarified that, if imposed, the quarantine will not apply to "truckers from outside the New York area."



"It will not affect trade in any way," stressed the president, who at no time specified what the quarantine would entail.



Before speaking to CNN, Cuomo had said at a press conference that he has never discussed the possibility with Trump, with whom he had spoken on the phone earlier this Saturday.



"I don't even know what that means. I don't know how it could be legally applied. From a medical point of view, I don't know what you would achieve," the governor said of the quarantine.



Cuomo, on the other hand, was very critical in the television interview with the Rhode Island state's decision to locate New Yorkers in its territory to force them to spend 14 days in quarantine.



To do this, Rhode Island has announced that it will conduct roadblocks on New York-registered vehicles and that it will go door-to-door in some coastal areas where many New Yorkers have summer homes.



"I think it is a reactionary policy, and I do not think it is legal," said Cuomo, who assured that he is speaking with the authorities of that state.



"If they don't back down on that policy, I will sue Rhode Island, because it is clearly unconstitutional," he warned.