The DuPage County Health Department is encouraging anyone who travels out of Illinois to quarantine to 14 days, but it stopped short of issuing an emergency order like the one that began in Chicago this week.
The health department warned that such "recommendations are critical in assuring that our community members continue to reduce the risk of spreading."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "travel increases your chances of getting and spreading COVID-19."
For those who do travel, DuPage health officials said they should:
- Wear a mask in public and when around people who don’t live in your household
- Wash hands and/or use hand sanitizer frequently
- Watch distance in order to maintain at least 6 feet from others as much as possible
In addition, those who do travel, especially to states currently seeing increase coronavirus transmission, are "encouraged to self-quarantine" for 14 days and monitor their health.
Chicago issued an emergency travel order that took effect Monday morning, directing anyone who visits one of 15 states in the U.S. currently experiencing a rise in coronavirus cases to quarantine for 14 days.
States included in the order are: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.
The move comes as states across the U.S. see surges of coronavirus cases, many shutting down bars and restaurants in an effort to quell or prevent a spike.
New cases have surged in several states across the nation, setting new records almost daily, driven mostly by expanding outbreaks in the American South and West. Florida, Texas, California and Arizona are just some of the states that reported record-high counts of daily new cases last week.
New York and New Jersey are also asking visitors from 16 states from the Carolinas to California to quarantine themselves for two weeks.
"Cases all over the country on fire," Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday. "Record numbers of new cases and deaths from across the country and all around Chicago- that's not going to be our story."
It remains unclear if the rest of Illinois will follow suit.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said guidance from health officials and scientists has not yet indicated such a move is required.
"That's not something that we are looking at implementing right now," he said last month. "Going forward, if we got the advice to do it we might."
