Travel Restrictions On Wisconsin Visitors 'As Soon As Next Week'

CHICAGO — Officials say Chicago is "very close" to adding Wisconsin to its list of states under emergency travel restrictions, NBC Chicago reports.

"The City continues to closely monitor the spread of COVID-19 in other regions across the country, including neighboring states such as Wisconsin where the case rate is very close to the cut off for quarantine," Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot told the television station.

Visitors from 18 hot spot states are currently required to quarantine for two weeks upon entering the city. Kansas made the list Tuesday, hours after reporting more than 1,300 new cases and a 9.7 percent positive test rate, according to the CBS affiliate in Wichita.

Wisconsin on Tuesday reported more than 1,100 new cases, the largest single-day increase in that state so far, according to the state's Department of Health Services. The state's positive test rate was 7.7 percent, down from 10.1 percent on Monday.

Chicago's emergency order went into effect after the July 4 holiday and currently covers visitors from Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah. Restrictions on visitors from Kansas go into effect Friday.

Officials said these states are seeing case numbers roughly equivalent to those in Illinois when the statewide stay-at-home order was in full effect.

Chicago Public Health Commissioner Allison Awardy said Wisconsin could join the list as soon as next week.

"When I talk to folks in Wisconsin, whether it's the state epidemiologist, whether it's people on just an anecdotal level, we know people are not wearing masks there at the level they are here in Chicago," she said at a news conference Tuesday.

Chicago also took the step this week of reinstating restrictions on bars that had been allowed to reopen. Come Friday, bars, taverns and breweries that don't serve food will no longer be allowed to serve customers indoors. In addition, gyms will have to limit indoor fitness classes to 10 people or fewer. Residential property managers will be required to limit guests at apartments and rental properties to five per unit to curb parties and large gatherings. And personal services that require removing masks, like shaves and facials, will be banned altogether.

After weeks of decline, officials said, new cases are again rising in the city, and a higher percentage of people tested for the virus have been positive compared to a month ago.

"That increase has been driven in part by rising cases among young people 18-29 years old as the city has seen more social activity and interactions in bars, restaurants, parks and the lakefront," according to the city's Department of Public Health.

Whether new restrictions will be imposed at the state level remains to be seen. State health officials say they are monitoring indicators across the 11 emergency management regions announced last week to detect "early but significant" increases in the spread of the virus that might signal a coming surge of cases.

If indicators show an increase in COVID-19 cases with a simultaneous decrease in hospital capacity, or if there are three consecutive days with more than an 8 percent positive test rate, a region may need additional community mitigation interventions to head off the virus, according to a state plan published last week.