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Gov. Janet Mills now allows visitors from five states to come to Maine without requiring a negative coronavirus test or a 14-day quarantine, but not all of those states are as open to Mainers.
The governor in early June allowed New Hampshire and Vermont residents to come to Maine for short visits without evidence or quarantines beginning June 12. She extended that to visitors to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut beginning Friday.
The goal is to fuel the economy by allowing visitors from nearby states with lower rates of coronavirus to enter, while Mainers visiting states outside of those five still need to be quarantined for 14 days upon returning home.
But there are caveats with Maine’s two closest neighbors, New Hampshire and Vermont. New Hampshire greets Mainers heading south on Interstate 95 with a well-lit sign reminding them that they have to be quarantined for 14 days to visit the state.
Vermont uses active county case counts to determine who can visit for pleasure without quarantine, and provides a map on its website to show case counts. Those in counties that have 400 cases per million people or more must quarantine.
That allows people from all Maine counties to visit without quarantine, except those from Cumberland and Androscoggin counties, which have 1,042 and 640 active cases per million people, respectively, according to their map, which uses data from Johns Hopkins University. .
Residents who live in Androscoggin and Cumberland counties and travel to Vermont in their personal vehicle would have to complete either a 14-day quarantine or a 7-day quarantine followed by a negative test in their home state. If they arrive in Vermont by public transportation, they should do the same, but they could be quarantined at a Vermont lodging facility or with friends or family.
All out-of-state travelers using lodging, camping, and short-term rental properties in Vermont must sign and complete a certificate of compliance to certify that they have met all quarantine requirements. Maine also requires a compliance form.
The three new states added today allow Mainers to visit without quarantine. All three last week said they have created lists of states with high infection rates from which visitors will be required to quarantine for 14 days. Those lists include states with a positivity rate of more than 10 percent, reflecting the percentage of tests that are positive for the virus. The lists covered 16 states as of Tuesday and include Arizona and California.
Rhode Island and Massachusetts residents must still quarantine or have a negative result to visit Maine. However, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker on Tuesday lifted that state’s restrictions to allow the other five states in New England, plus New York and New Jersey, to visit quarantine-free due to declining coronavirus cases. in those states.
Rhode Island requires that visitors from states with a COVID-19 positivity rate greater than 5 percent self-quarantine for 14 days while in Rhode Island or present a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of arrival. Mainers do not need quarantine.
The quarantine and testing restrictions have been criticized by the hotel industry, whose advocates say they are cumbersome and keep people away. Hoteliers and prospective guests have complained that the tests are not available in their home states.
Mills said during a press conference last Friday that with the Canadian border closed, most travelers to Maine have to go through New Hampshire anyway.
“New Hampshire has abundant evidence,” said Mills. “There is no reason why someone who drives to Maine, inevitably drives through New Hampshire, cannot find a place to get tested.”
