Indiana added back to Chicago’s emergency travel order
Unvaccinated travelers heading from Indiana to Chicago will have to quarantine or test negative for COVID-19 starting Friday under the city’s latest update to its emergency travel order.
Illinois’ eastern neighbor, which has been on the city’s travel list before, is the only state that will move from the “yellow” tier to the “orange” one this week, according to a Tuesday news release from the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Travelers coming from the 18 orange states plus Puerto Rico must quarantine for 10 days or test negative for the coronavirus no more than 72 hours before arriving.
People can avoid either requirement if they have been fully vaccinated at least two weeks earlier.
“Indiana, unfortunately, is seeing a surge in COVID cases,” Chicago public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said during a Tuesday question-and-answer session.
The full list of states subject to the orange tier restrictions is: Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington and West Virginia. Puerto Rico also is in the orange tier.
Also in this week’s travel order update, eight states plus Washington, D.C., are moving down to the yellow tier. Those eight states are Alaska, Connecticut, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont and Virginia.
That means travelers from there are no longer required to follow additional quarantine and COVID-19 testing requirements. The orange category includes states or territories that have a seven-day rolling average above 15 daily cases per 100,000 residents, while yellow states are under that threshold.
Starting last week, travelers from orange states also could take COVID-19 tests at airports or other city testing sites upon arrival. But they must quarantine until getting a negative result.
The travel order is updated every two weeks and goes into effect Friday at midnight. Essential workers traveling for their job are exempt, as are people traveling for medical or caretaking reasons. People passing through the orange states for less than 24 hours also are exempt unless their final destination is that state.
