Connecticut’s COVID-19 travel advisory now applies to almost half the United States; certification process being developed for arriving air travelers

Connecticut expanded the scope of its COVID-19 quarantine advisory to encompass nearly half of the United States Tuesday, indicating the vulnerability the state faces as infection rates rise across the country.

While Connecticut continues to contain the virus and report declining COVID-19 hospitalizations, hot spots are spreading throughout vast swaths of the South, Midwest, and West. In response, Connecticut has taken an increasingly isolationist stance toward the rest of the country, now requiring air travelers from a total of 22 states to self-quarantine for two weeks upon arrival.

With the addition of Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wisconsin to its COVID-19 travel advisory Tuesday, Connecticut’s restrictions now apply to more than half of the total U.S. population. Delaware was removed from the list Tuesday.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s office and the state Department of Public Health are also finalizing a certification process that air travelers arriving to Connecticut from states with high infection rates will be required to complete.

“This is a measure that we are looking to put into place as a direct result of what is happening in other states around the country,” said Max Reiss, a spokesman for Lamont. “What we want to do is prevent any outbreaks sooner.”

The full list of states on the advisory now includes Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. Travelers from those states are asked to self-quarantine for a 14-day period from the time of last contact within the identified state.

The travel advisory, established in conjunction with New York and New Jersey, includes all states with a new daily positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents or with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.

“The rate of infection continues to expand,” Lamont said during his daily press briefing Tuesday. “Our metrics are pretty clear: 10%. We’re down below 1%.”

The advisory now also includes the locations of both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, planned for August. The Democratic convention, scheduled for for Aug. 17-20, will be “anchored” in Milwaukee, WI, but will largely be broadcast remotely. And as COVID-19 cases surge in Florida, a number of Republican lawmakers have decided not to attend their convention, planned for Aug. 24-27, in Jacksonville. Convention officials announced Tuesday that they would move the convention from an indoor venue to an outdoor one.

Divergent enforcement methods

Though the self-quarantine travel advisory is a tristate collaboration, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey have taken different approaches to enforcing it.

New York has adopted the toughest stance so far, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo saying Monday that all travelers flying into the state must furnish contact and itinerary information or face a $2,000 fine. Non-compliance in New York could even result in a court-ordered mandatory quarantine.

Cuomo also said that travelers arriving into New York on trains and cars from states with high infection rates—and planning to stay for more than 24 hours—must fill out the state’s new online form.

Connecticut plans to release its certification form for air travelers within a week, according to Lamont. On the form, arriving travelers will be asked to disclose where they are coming from, where they are going, who they traveled with and how the state can contact them.

The governor has no plans to require contact information from travelers entering the state in cars and has hesitated to announce more stringent enforcement measures of air travel advisory.

“We’re not looking at fines at this point,” Lamont said Tuesday.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday he also did not intend to impose fines and instead hopes that travelers will willingly provide their contact information to authorities.

Certification process in the works

Once Connecticut’s certification process is established, the state faces the task of potentially certifying thousands of travelers a day at Bradley International Airport — and as many as 25 daily arriving flights.

“At an airport like Bradley, you essentially will have to meet every flight coming in,” Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority, said Tuesday. “For example, we have flights that come in from Chicago — Illinois right now is not an impacted state — but Chicago is a high connection point so you can have passengers coming from California, Texas connecting into Chicago.”

“Theoretically, you have to query each passenger to advise them that if you came from one of these states you will need to fill out this form, so that’s why this is a little challenge getting this thing done,” he added

To facilitate the certification process, the governor’s office is considering using state law enforcement officers or state health department employees working directly with airport authority staff, Reiss said. Just how many people would be needed for the job is not yet known, he added.

“There would need to be some level of engagement with most passengers as they de-plane,” he said.

Dillon said there may be ways to streamline the certification, including using an app that allows airline passengers to fill out an online form even before they leave the airplane.

But the bigger issue emerging is what will be done with the information once it is secured from travelers. It is not yet clear to what extent the state will follow-up with travelers who fill out certification forms.

Dr. David Banach, an epidemiologist at UConn Health, said there may be merit to requiring travelers to fill out the certification form.

“Having access to the individuals for contact tracing is always a good thing,” he said.

But Banach said the biggest benefit may be driving home the point to arriving travelers that Connecticut has a quarantine requirement.

“It’s by no means a guarantee that all individuals are going to report and adhere to the quarantine advisory, but at least it will raise awareness,” Banach said. “It also shows Connecticut is at least promoting and providing the information to individuals.”