Denver, Colorado (skeeze / Pixabay)
City officials added Colorado, Ohio, Delaware, West Virginia and Texas to Chicago’s COVID-19 quarantine order, joining all of the states that border Illinois amid a surge in confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
Indiana will remain on the city’s quarantine order for a second week, while Wisconsin is set to complete a month on the city’s quarantine order, as the surge of cases in the Midwest continues to grow, officials said.
In all, the city’s order warns residents against travel to 30 states and Puerto Rico.
Confirmed cases of the coronavirus declined during the past week in six states — California, Oregon, Hawaii, Vermont, Louisiana and Kentucky, officials said.
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 and students commuting to class 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 561 Chicagoans have been diagnosed each day with the coronavirus during the past week, a 50% increase from the previous week, according to Chicago Department of Public Health data. The city’s average test positivity rate is 5.8%, while an average of 12.8% of all people tested for COVID-19 have the virus, according to the data.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
