Starting today, anyone visiting or returning to the District from more than half of the country will need to isolate and monitor themselves for symptoms of infection for 14 days.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser is ordering travelers to Washington from more than half of the country to be quarantined due to a widespread escalation in new coronavirus cases.
Starting Monday, anyone visiting or returning to the District for spurious activities from 27 high-risk states will have to isolate and monitor themselves for COVID-19 symptoms for 14 days.
High-risk coronavirus states
As of July 27, the states included in the DC quarantine order are:
- Arkansas
- Arizona
- Alabama
- California
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Washington
- Wisconsin
People who enter the District for essential purposes are not required to be quarantined when they arrive. Instead, DC health officials advise those visitors to monitor symptoms and seek medical attention or evidence if they begin to feel ill.
Travel to and from Maryland and Virginia is exempt from Bowser’s new request. The list is valid until August 10, when local officials will reevaluate and post an updated list on the DC Department of Health coronavirus portal.
“High-risk areas are locations where the seven-day moving average of new daily COVID-19 cases is 10 or more per 100,000 people,” Bowser said, announcing the request at a press conference last week.
“We know, unfortunately, that there are states that are seeing significant spikes and new cases. We know there are places where people are not being so cautious or making the sacrifices that we are making here in DC “
The new traveler protocol comes days after Bowser tightened the city’s order on mandatory masks, demanding that the public wear facial masks outside their homes and warning of a fine of up to $ 1,000 for those who do not adhere.
New coronavirus infections have been on the rise across the DC region, following a record increase across the South and West, including California, Texas and Florida.
Although positivity rates remain well below the 10% threshold recommended by the World Health Organization in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, the 7-day averages of recently reported cases have steadily increased in all three states since the end of June. .
Daily statistics from state health departments show that Virginia and Maryland have seen daily totals for similar cases again in late May or early June, averaging between 750 and 1,000 recently reported cases per day, a notable increase. Both DC neighbors are also experiencing an increase in pandemic-related hospitalizations.
More news from Coronavirus
Looking for more information? DC, Maryland and Virginia publish more data every day. Visit their official sites here: Virginia | Maryland | DC
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