After announcing a mandatory two-week self-quarantine last week for travelers coming from areas with high levels of COVID-19, D.C. has deemed 27 states “high-risk.”
D.C. Health said in a press release on Monday that nonessential travelers entering the city from Arkansas, Arizona, Alabama, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin must self-quarantine for 14 days.
The city defines high-risk states as those where the seven-day moving average of daily new COVID-19 cases is 10 or more per 100,000 people. The new regulation, which goes into effect on Monday, excludes Maryland and Virginia, and the list will be updated every other Monday.
Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the new rule on Friday. It will remain in place until October 9, the expected end of the District’s public health emergency. College students coming back to D.C. from high-risk areas for the fall semester will also be required to self-quarantine in their on-campus or off-campus housing.
Those in self-quarantine must stay in their homes or hotel rooms, leaving only to get food or for medical appointments, and cannot have guests.
Employers, schools, and apartment buildings could require that people comply with the order before entering buildings or properties. Bowser said universities will provide a list of students who must self-quarantine, but emphasized social pressure as a means of carrying out the measure.
“There’s nobody standing at the hotel door telling people if they can come or go, but certainly they will be required to make all of their travelers aware of the guidelines of the local jurisdictions,” Bowser said during a press briefing Friday. “We should be asking our social group circles, our family, our work colleagues, ‘you’re making a nonessential trip, you’re going to a hot spot, why are you doing that? And you do know that when you get back, you have to stay in your house?'”
She said those coming into the District for an essential activity — like a job or to seek medical care — and those coming back to town after essential travel should be “more vigilant” and only leave home for essential activities.
The order comes as the D.C. region has seen an uptick in coronavirus cases. Last week Bowser signed an order expanding mask requirements outside the home in an effort to curb the spread.
Other states have previously implemented similar rules, and last week Maryland and Virginia were added to the lists of high-risk states in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York.
