Since March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised travelers to self-quarantine for 14 days after all international travel, and after domestic travel to states with a high rate of coronavirus cases. But the CDC recently changed its stance and removed that two-week quarantine recommendation.
“Connecticut has not seen any additional science that would tell us we should change our travel advisory. I will be in touch with my colleagues from New York and New Jersey and we’ll be discussing this, but at this moment we have no plans to change or alter our travel advisory,” Department of Public Health Acting Commissioner Deidre Gifford said.
Connecticut is one of seven states with a 14-quarantine requirement for anyone coming from a state or country with a high positivity rating. Right now there are 31 locations on the list.
Dr. Richard Martinello, an associate professor of internal medicine and pediatrics, infectious diseases at Yale School of Medicine said the reason behind the 14-day quarantine is because it takes a person 14 days to show symptoms if they contracted the virus.
“It’s not clear why things have changed. There’s no additional science that has come available to help us understand why that decision was made,” Martinello said.
Local
A CDC statement says “updated guidance is based on risk of exposure during travel, asking travelers to think about what they did, where they were, and who they came into contact with to evaluate their risk of exposure to COVID-19.”
“If you’re traveling from one of these hotspot states on our list that unless you are unable to quarantine, you need to quarantine when you get to Connecticut for 14 days,” Gifford said.
Marinello agreed with Gifford’s decision to keep the quarantine order in place.
“We have seen a number of patients within our health care system who have traveled, often times for vacations to some of these areas where we know there is a lot of COVID being transmitted,” Martinello said.
There are certain circumstances under which travelers would not have to quarantine, such as travel to the state for a funeral. In that case travelers would have to get a test before they arrive.
“If we get a report that someone is not complying then people are subject to a fine,” Gifford said.
So far, Connecticut has issued 11 fines for violating the travel advisory. Six people are appealing.
