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Initially, as part of a joint advisory with New York and New Jersey, a state with 10 cases per 100,000 people or a 10 percent positivity rate met the standards for being on the list.
Under the new guidance, a state with 10 cases per 100,000 people and a 5 percent positivity rate will be added to the state's travel advisory list.
The list of new states added is expected Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 20. Had the change not been made, due to recent rises in positivity rates, both Connecticut and New Jersey would have been included on the tristate joint quarantine list of states.
There are now 33 states and two territories on the advisory list.
Anyone traveling to Connecticut who had been in a state on the list for more than 24 hours will be subject to a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
“I thought the other threshold was so broad, that it was including about 85 percent of our states across the country and it was becoming unenforceable,” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said.
“So we thought about 'Ok, maybe we will just make this general guidance for all of our states’,” he added. “And then everybody persuaded me, 'no, we still have some states as you heard from the previous question that has a 50 percent positivity rate.’
“We don’t want those people to be just general guidance, we want that to be enforceable. So that’s how we set up our revised travel advisory.”
Lamont made note that anyone who fails to quarantine will be in violation of the state’s mandate, which is enforceable. There have been nearly four dozen fines issued so far to travelers violating the rule.
“Still, for those places that have 10 per 100,000, or 5 percent positivity, either or, both of those, then it’s really important that you’re gonna have to quarantine,” he said. “That’ll be enforceable.
“The threshold was so broad, it was becoming unenforceable,” Lamont continued. “I think it means we brought the number of states that fall in the category from over 40 down to about 33, which is more manageable.”
States currently on Connecticut’s travel advisory list:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arkansas
- Colorado
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Guam
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Puerto Rico
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Virginia
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Since the pandemic began, more than two million COVID-19 tests have been administered in Connecticut, with 64,021 positive cases confirmed, and 2,580 probable cases reported. There have been 4,554 virus-related deaths statewide.
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