Four States Added To Chicago's Emergency Travel Quarantine List

CHICAGO — Starting Friday, travelers coming to Chicago from Wisconsin, Missouri, North Dakota and Nebraska will be required to quarantine for 14 days, city public health officials said.

The emergency travel order doesn't apply to essential workers. People who commute to Wisconsin for work are exempt from the order under the following conditions:

• Limit themselves to work-related activities and functions that directly support their work, and avoid public spaces as much as possible.
• Monitor their temperature and for any symptoms, wear a face covering when in public, maintain social distance, and clean and disinfect workspaces.
• Avoid extended periods in public, contact with strangers, and large congregate settings as much as possible.

People who do not spend more than 24 hours in Wisconsin while on their way to another state do not need to quarantine.

All other travel to Wisconsin, including trips to vacation homes, requires people to quarantine for two weeks under the order.

"I know that’s disappointing and hard for people. But it is unfortunately where we are,” Public Health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Tuesday during a telephone news conference with reporters. She said that there doesn't appear to be evidence that Wisconsin leaders, who have not enacted face-mask requirements, are "turning their outbreak around."

"That poses a "significant risk to Chicago when folks do return," Arwady said.

The expansion of the travel order now includes 22 states also includes: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.

City public health officials said they are closely monitoring coronavirus case levels in Indiana, as well, to determine whether to extend the travel order to include the neighboring state. The list of states is set to be updated on Tuesday, officials said.

Arwady said travel order scofflaws could be issued tickets that carry fines between $100 and $500 a day. Arwady said officials have received information that some city employees may have not "appropriately abided" by the quarantine, and there has been social media evidence of people flagrantly posting about violating the order.

“If we identify people who have COVID who have had contacts with folks who have traveled from settings that they should have been under quarantine at the time of exposure, that would warrant a ticket," she said.