By Will Collette
Rhode Island gains the dubious distinction of being the only state in the northeast to make the list compiled by the anti-pandemic tri-state compact of Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.
If you plan to go to any of these three states and stay more than 24 hours, you must register and then undergo a 14 day quarantine. There are major penalties if you violate these rules.
CLICK HERE for the Connecticut travel form. For official, detailed information, CLICK HERE for the state of Connecticut's complete travel advisory for visitors.
You can go back and forth across the CT line to shop or enjoy their shoreline (though our's is just as good) or any other purpose, as long as you get out of town by sunset (or 24 hours).
The New London Day had these remarks on Rhode Islanders who work in Connecticut:
"Though the travel advisory excludes travelers spending less than 24 hours in either a hot spot state or in Connecticut, it’s unclear if that exemption applies to workers repeatedly crossing back and forth. The advisory also exempts those who work in critical infrastructure, such as employees of Electric Boat."
As you may recall, Rhode Island enforced its restrictions on out-of-state visitors with State Police and National Guard checkpoints. Connecticut, New York and New Jersey do not appear to be doing that. using high fines of $1,000 per violation instead.The travel restrictions are not permanent - as the tri-state group added Rhode Island, they also removed Delaware and the District of Columbia from the list.
WPRI reports some Rhode Island officials feel this decision is unfair because our case positivity rate is less than the 10% threshold called for in the tri-state guidelines. As of today, our positivity rate listed as 2.7%. That's a uptick from the 1.7% I reported last night.
The other way to get on the tri-state travel restriction list is to have new COVID-19 cases exceeding 10 per 100,000 population. We had 123 new cases today and a 3-day average of 84. but our 7-day rate would be higher since we had several days with a more than 100 cases.
Hopefully, the news of these restrictions will prod us all to take more care to follow masking and social distancing guidelines to curb the rise in our coronavirus rates.