As we explained in a prior alert, New York state requires employers to provide paid sick leave to employees who are subject to mandatory or precautionary orders of quarantine or isolation and showing COVID-19 symptoms or physically unable to work remotely. However, the statute provides an exception for employees who traveled to a country for which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Level 2 or 3 Travel Health Notice prior to the employee's travel, provided that the travel was not work-related. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently issued an executive order providing that, in addition to the above exception, employees are not eligible for paid leave pursuant to New York’s COVID-19 leave law if, after June 25, 2020, they voluntarily travel to a state with a COVID-19 positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents, or higher than a 10% test positivity rate, over a seven-day rolling average, as determined by the Commissioner of the Department of Health. Similarly, this exception applies so long as that the travel was not work-related. Further information about New York’s COVID-19 Travel Advisory and the states at issue is available here.