Suburban Cook expands quarantine list
14-day requirement for those from states with high COVID-19 rates
Suburban Cook County is joining the city of Chicago in requiring people coming to Illinois from states with high rates of COVID-19 infection to quarantine upon arrival for 14 days.
The decision was announced Friday by the Cook County Department
of Public Health, which has jurisdiction throughout Cook County suburbs with the exceptions of Evanston, Skokie, Oak Park and Stickney Township, each of which have their own health departments.
The requirement applies to states that have greater than 15 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents a day, over a seven-day rolling average. In suburban Cook, with the areas not covered by the county public health department, the rate is running about 9 per 100,000.
Exceptions from the requirement will be made for essential workers traveling for work purposes and other specific circumstances, according to a news release announcing the new rule.
There are 17 states now on the quarantine list. They are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
“We have come a long way in Cook County and Illinois and we want to keep it that way,” said Cook County Department of Public Health Co-Lead and Senior Medical Officer Dr. Rachel Rubin. “It is summer and we know people want to travel, but we have to remain vigilant to keep our gains and avoid having to close places we’ve only just reopened.”