As US COVID-19 cases surpass 4 million, more states and cities enforce quarantines
As the coronavirus continues to spread across the United States, local government officials are cracking down on quarantines.
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Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker issued an order Friday requiring out-of-state visitors from most of the U.S. to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival, or face a daily fine of $500. The order excludes neighboring states in the New England region as well as New York, New Jersey and Hawaii.
To the south, Washington D.C. has also implemented a quarantine to be enforced for most visitors outside of the region.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's order goes into effect Monday, July 27, and will require people to self-quarantine upon arriving back to D.C. after nonessential travel to high-risk areas. Bowser defined high-risk areas as regions where the seven-day rolling average for new COVID-19 cases is 10 or more per 100,000 people, or 0.01% of the total population.
"We know that there are places where people are not being as cautious or making the sacrifices that were making here in D.C.," Mayor Bowser said in a livestreamed announcement Friday. "And unfortunately when people travel in and out of D.C. from these [high-risk areas], that can put our community's health at risk."
Related: A state-by-state guide to reopening
The ordinance excludes people returning from neighboring states Maryland and Virginia; the mayor's office will publish a list of quarantine regions beginning Monday, which will be updated every two weeks.
Essential workers entering or returning to the D.C. region are asked to observe more vigilant procedures in lieu of undergoing quarantine.
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Massachusetts and D.C. join the ranks of Hawaii, Puerto Rico (for untested travelers), Maine, Chicago, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, all of which have implemented quarantines for visitors from high-risk regions, both international and domestic.
As of today, July 24, U.S. COVID-19 cases have surpassed four million, with 135,000 U.S. deaths due to COVID-19 — an increase of 1.8 million cases and 22,000 deaths since TPG first began reporting case data on June 24.
Featured photo by Benji Stawski/The Points Guy.