CHICAGO — Some people who arrive in Chicago from out of state may face a 14-day quarantine. That includes local residents who visited states with new spikes in coronavirus cases.
Over the weekend, Mayor Lori Lightfoot signed a public health order mandating the quarantine, starting Monday morning, for people arriving from 15 states:
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Arizona
- California
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- North Carolina
- Nevada
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
The list of states will be updated every week, city officials said.
Lightfoot hasn’t said how the order will be enforced, but fines will range from $100 to $500 a day, and up to $7,000 total.
Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicago health commissioner, said the city isn’t going to track every traveler, but they want to discourage non-essential travel and hope people do the right thing.
Exceptions to the order include travel for medical care and for essential work with a certified employer’s note required.
While Chicago and Illinois have seen declines in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths, other parts of the country are seeing a surge in new cases and the country overall is setting new highs for daily COVID-19 cases. Officials cited New York, New Jersey and Connecticut as states that have decided to take the same approach.
On Sunday, Illinois reported its lowest daily number of coronavirus deaths since late March.
