Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued an emergency travel order Thursday that requires travelers visiting Chicago from states experiencing an increase in COVID-19 cases to be quarantined for two weeks.
MONDAY EFFECTIVE: To preserve the gains Chicago has made, we are issuing an Emergency Travel Order directing travelers entering or returning to Chicago from states experiencing an increase in new COVID-19 cases to quarantine by a 14 day period. More information → https://t.co/5D7ng691f8 pic.twitter.com/CA26uT7RF6
– Mayor Lori Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) July 2, 2020
By the end of the month, a certain group of travelers, the Major League Baseball teams, will visit Chicago to play against the White Sox on the Guaranteed Rates Field. Similarly, the White Sox will travel to play road games in other states, from which they will eventually return.
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But the White Sox say they don’t expect the new order to affect its upcoming 2020 season.
“Based on our current understanding, we do not expect this to affect our operations as currently planned,” a White Sox spokesperson told NBC Sports Chicago on Thursday.
Currently, no state that is home to AL or NL Central Division teams is affected by Mayor Lightfoot’s order. But as has become extremely apparent, the current COVID-19 pandemic can turn things around quickly, and it is unknown which states could be affected on Opening Day or anytime during the two-month baseball season.
At the moment, the mayor’s order, which takes effect on Monday, applies to visitors from Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah. Landing on that list involves a specific metric. According to the city’s website, “A state will be designated if it has a case rate greater than 15 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 resident inhabitants, per day, over a 7-day moving average.”
Major League Baseball is imposing a geographic schedule to minimize team travel during the shortened 60-game season. The teams will only play against their division rivals and teams from the same geographic division in the other league. The White Sox will play against their four opponents from the American League Central and the five teams from the National League Central.
As of the mayor’s order issued Thursday, the states of Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were no longer part of the travel order. But each of those states, except Missouri, as well as Illinois, is currently experiencing a weekly increase in the number of new cases. The number of new cases is also increasing in Iowa, where the White Sox are still slated to play in the Field of Dreams game on August 13.
However, the city does have the ability to grant exemptions, and Major League Baseball’s extensive health and safety measures could come into play. According to the city’s website, “the Health Commissioner may also grant an exemption based on evidence from an organization or company and other control policies or in extraordinary circumstances, justifying an exception to the mandatory quarantine.”
Therefore, the city has the power to allow the MLB season, as far as teams traveling in and out of Chicago, operate as planned. You can allow the Cleveland Indians to come to town, or allow the White Sox to return from a trip to Detroit, even if other travelers from Ohio or Michigan, for example, are required to quarantine for two weeks.
As mentioned, the evolving state of the pandemic and the response to it, not just in Chicago but across the country, can change everything in a hurry. Major League Baseball faces its own internal hurdles when it comes to safely taking off and completing the season.
But as the White Sox understand it, there may be no reason to believe that Mayor Lightfoot would be throwing a separate key at the difficult task of playing the 2020 baseball season.
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