The city of Chicago moved more than a dozen states to its most severe travel order designation, but people returning from those areas only need to quarantine for 10 days now, officials announced Tuesday.
Based on the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance that those exposed to COVID-19 should quarantine for 10 days, not 14, travelers from “red” level states are mandated to follow the shorter requirement, according to a city news release.
“Regardless of category, people are urged to avoid nonessential travel and to follow standard COVID-19 mitigation practices such as wearing a mask, washing hands frequently, and social distancing,” the news release said.
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As of Friday, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia will be bumped up to the red tier. But Iowa is moving down to the “orange” designation that allows travelers to avoid the quarantine if they receive a negative test result before coming into the city.
That makes the total 31 red states and 17 orange states plus Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. New to the orange list will be Maine and Vermont. Only one state, Hawaii, remains “yellow,” meaning there are no additional testing or quarantine requirements.
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Up until last month, any state averaging an infection rate higher than 15 daily cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period was added to the city’s list. Then the city revamped its travel order introduced during the Fourth of July weekend to require a quarantine only from people coming from red-tier states, or those with higher COVID-19 case rates than Chicago. The city is now at 60 cases per 100,000 residents.
Those coming from orange states, which have numbers between 15 cases-per-100,000 and Chicago’s rate of 60-per-100,000, should get a negative COVID-19 test result no more than 72 hours before arriving or quarantine for 10 days. Those coming from a yellow state must only observe regular social distancing and mask rules.
The travel order is updated every two weeks and goes into effect the following Friday.
