The three states, as well as Wisconsin, are the latest to be added to the Chicago’s quarantine travel order.
Effective, Friday, July 31, travelers as well as returning Chicagoans from Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wisconsin will be subject to a 14-day quarantine period.
Yesterday, in an unrelated press conference, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that the city would be adding the state of Wisconsin to the Chicago’s Emergency Travel Order. Today, her office revealed that three additional states would be added to that list effective Friday, July 31. Starting then, incoming travelers from those states as well as returning citizens to a mandatory two-week quarantine.
“What we’re seeing is cities and towns — particularly across the South through the Southwest and on to California — really having significant struggles now because many of those communities took a very different approach to the one that Chicago took. We’re also seeing an increase in states around us. Wisconsin, for example, is gonna go on our quarantine list later this week,” said Lightfoot yesterday.
“Even in the suburban Cook area we have some concerns about what we’re seeing . . . My hope, however, is that we will all work in concert to really go back to what got us to a position of safety: social distancing, wearing face coverings in public, making sure you’re exercising hand hygiene. COVID-19 is very much real. It is dangerous. It is part of our present and it’s gonna be part of our future. So we need to make sure we’re doing the steps now that are necessary to start to slow again the spread of this virus.”
This brings the number of states on Chicago’s Emergency Travel Order to 22. The full list includes: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah, in addition to the four states that will be added on Friday.
Those exempt from the quarantine period include essential workers, whether native to surrounding states or to Chicago, who’s presence — whether inside or outside the city — was essential in conducting their business — both cases require proper paperwork from their employers.
According the city office, the list will be updated every Tuesday and go into effect the following Friday.
See also: City Announces $33 Million Housing Assistance Program To Support Rent, Mortgage Relief
[Featured image via Shutterstock]