Vermont Governor Phil Scott has issued a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all travelers arriving in the state.
“In light of the significant risk posed by the further spread of this dangerous virus to Vermonters and the viability of Vermont’s health care system, this new order directs residents and non-residents coming from outside the state for anything other than an essential purpose to home-quarantine for 14 days and strongly discourages travel to Vermont by those located in COVID-19 ‘hot spots,’” Scott’s statement said.
So the first thing to note is that essential purpose travelers will not have to quarantine.
“Essential purpose” for purposes of this quarantine restriction will include “travel required for personal safety; food, beverage or medicine; medical care; care of others; and to perform work, services or functions deemed critical to public health and safety, as well as economic and national security, as set forth in Stay Home/Stay Safe.”
This is one of the few quarantine orders that applies very broadly (to all inbound, non-essential travelers).
In some cases, like Texas, we are seeing mandatory quarantines being issued for people coming in from specific states like Louisiana. But in this case, the quarantine is applying much broader and will impact all travelers arriving in the state.
There’s also the additional advisory that is discouraging travel from the hotspots. In reference to hotspots, the governor was specifically referring to Florida, Louisiana, and the cities of Detroit, Chicago, and New York City.
Something that sticks out with this quarantine order is that it states that lodging facilities, including hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, Airbnbs, and even private camping facilities and RV parks, will be closed except for some exceptions.
Exceptions would include providing housing to certain people like those needing quarantine, homeless people, or healthcare workers.
With these quarantines tightening up, it is going to be virtually impossible to travel without a quarantine in certain states in hot spot regions.
Not that you should be traveling right now for pleasure anyways but if you were planning on escaping to a rural area in Vermont or something like that, it does not look like that is not possible without a quarantine and it would also be against the recommendations from the government for many.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.