(WTTW News)

Visitors to Chicago from Wisconsin no longer have to quarantine for 10 days, according to the city’s COVID-19 travel order, updated on Tuesday.

Travelers from the Badger State can avoid the 10-day quarantine if they record a negative test for COVID-19 within 72 hours, according to the order.

However, visitors to Chicago from all states except for Hawaii and Vermont must either quarantine or record a negative COVID-19 test, according to the order. Only those two states are averaging fewer than 15 COVID-19 cases per day per 100,000 residents, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health order.

“This is not a year for gathering,” Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said during a news conference Tuesday morning. “The bottom line is that still COVID is absolutely surging across the U.S., and you should delay travel if at all possible.”

In addition to visitors from Wisconsin, travelers coming to Chicago from Alaska, Connecticut, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming can now avoid a 10-day quarantine with a negative COVID-19 test as a surge in the coronavirus pandemic eases in those states after the updated order takes effect Friday.

However, the order now requires travelers from Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia to quarantine for 10 days because those states are recording more confirmed COVID-19 cases per day, per 100,000 population, than Chicago, officials said.

Those states join Rhode Island, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Kansas, Delaware, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, California, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and West Virginia under the travel order’s tightest restrictions.

Travelers from all other states will be required to quarantine for 10 days or test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of arriving in Chicago, officials said. Those states have an average between 15 new cases per day, per 100,000 population, and Chicago’s rolling case average, officials said.

Violators of the quarantine 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, which was first announced in July.

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.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]