Just as Mayor Lori Lightfoot indicated on Monday, Wisconsin has been added to the list of state’s covered by Chicago’s 14-day travel quarantine.
Other states making the updated list announced Tuesday by the Chicago Department of Public Health are Missouri, Nebraska and North Dakota. All four states officially fall under the order on Friday.
Also on Tuesday, Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, said the voluntary compliance to the order that the city has relied upon is about to end. Ticketing, she said, is coming.
For instance, Arwady told reporters on a conference call, tickets can be issued during course of an investigation into COVID spread. She also mentioned the possibility of fining city employees who may not have abided by quarantine.
Tickets also may result from “social media examples” where people are “flagrantly posting social activities,” Arwady said.
The additions to the order will bring the tally to 22 states now covered. Under the order, people traveling or returning to Chicago from one of those states are required to isolate for 14 days upon arrival.
When the order, in effect indefinitely, was announced, the city had offered no details on exactly how it would be enforced. But under the order violators are subject to city fines of $100 to $500 per day, up to $7,000.
There are exemptions, such as travel for medical care, or for essential workers who are required to travel to Chicago from a covered state, or travel from Chicago to work in one of the covered states.
The rest of the list: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
In noting on Monday that Wisconsin was being added, Lightfoot also warned that Indiana could be next. And that’s no idle threat - she had indicated last week that Wisconsin could be added.
With Major League Baseball now trying to play a shortened season, it’s also worth noting that sports teams are exempt from the order, according to the city, under a provision that allows an exception for businesses or organizations that have testing and other controls in place. However, that still means visiting teams, as well as the White Sox or Cubs when they return from a state on the list, must follow other recommendations that apply to essential workers, which includes health monitoring and avoiding non-essential interaction with other people.
The quarantine order also only applies if a person has spent 24 hours or more in one of the flagged states. That may help travelers returning to Chicago from a state not on the list, but connecting through a state that is.
