Indianapolis. (David Mark / Pixabay)
Indiana is on track to be added to Chicago’s COVID-19 quarantine order, and city health officials urged Chicagoans not to travel to the Hoosier State.
Wisconsin remains on the city’s quarantine order, as the surge of cases in the Badger State continues to grow, officials said.
The warning about the increase in confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Indiana is designed to give Chicagoans who routinely cross the border time to prepare for the state to join the other 22 states now on the quarantine order, officials said.
City officials added Alaska to the quarantine order, effective Friday, and removed Georgia and Texas from the order on Tuesday. Texas spent less than a week on the city’s quarantine order, after officials determined that an apparent increase in cases was due to a “data anomaly.”
Violators of the order could face fines of $100 to $500 per day for a maximum fine of $7,000, according to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office. However, city officials have said they're relying on an education campaign, rather than an enforcement effort. No one has been cited for violating the order.
Travel by essential workers is exempt from the order, according to the mayor’s office, as is travel to obtain medical care or exchange children subject to a shared custody order.
An average of 329 Chicagoans have been diagnosed each day with the coronavirus during the past week, a 10% increase from the previous week, according to Chicago Department of Public Health data. The city’s average test positivity rate is 4.3%, while an average of 8.2% of all people tested for COVID-19 have the virus, according to the data.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
