(WTTW News)
Chicago officials added four states to the city’s COVID-19 travel advisory on Tuesday as the number of cases continues to spike with the spread of the delta variant of the virus.
In all, the advisory covers 43 states as well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, according to an announcement from Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office. Unvaccinated visitors to Chicago from those states are urged to quarantine for 10 days or record a negative test for the coronavirus within 72 hours of their arrival, officials said.
The city’s travel order, first implemented in July 2020, did not include any states as of June 1 as vaccination efforts tamped down new infections and spurred reopenings across the United States. On June 29, officials announced the order would become an advisory, as COVID-19 cases remained low across the nation.
However, progress in stopping the spread of COVID-19 has been reversed with the spread of the more transmissible delta variant of the virus, officials said.
Colorado, Maryland, Nebraska and South Dakota were added to the travel advisory Tuesday, while officials removed Washington, D.C., from the advisory after its confirmed number of new cases dropped to less than 15 per day per 100,000 residents, the standard for states and territories to be added to the travel advisory, Chicago officials said.
Chicago is averaging 16.8 new cases per day per 100,000 residents. Illinois is averaging 17.1 cases per day, according to data from the Chicago Department of Public Health.
In addition to unvaccinated visitors from Washington, D.C., those from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Michigan, Connecticut and Vermont are not covered by the travel advisory.
An average of 454 Chicagoans have been diagnosed each day with the coronavirus during the past week, a 7% increase from the previous week, according to Chicago Department of Public Health data.
The city’s test positivity rate is 4.5%, up from 4.4% from past week, while the number of tests rose 3% to an average of approximately 11,750 per day, according to city data.
Daily hospitalizations have fallen by 22% in the past seven days, and 60.2% of all Chicagoans have gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to city data.
No one was cited for violating the travel order, which could have triggered fines of $100 to $500 per day for a maximum fine of $7,000, according to the mayor’s office.
City officials said the advisory is designed to be part of a COVID-19 education campaign.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
