Quarantine required for all non-essential travel in and out of Vermont

By Guy Page

Gov. Phil Scott suspended the Vermont Covid-19 ‘travel map’ today. The State of Vermont has implemented a mandatory 14-day quarantine for any non-essential returning or traveling to Vermont.

Any Vermonter who travels out-of-state on non-essential business must quarantine for 14 days upon return. All visitors to Vermont on non-essential business must quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.

The Health Dept. “dashboard” shows 12 people hospitalized for Covid-19, four in the ICU. The first death since July occurred several days ago.

Guy Page

Until it disappeared from the Health Dept. website today, the travel map showed Vermonters where they could, and couldn’t, travel out-of-state without needing to quarantine upon return. But the “third wave” of Covid regionally and nationwide has made virtually every regional county unsafe for travel.

The no-exceptions travel policy is the latest response by the Scott administration to keep the rising third wave of Covid-19 out of Vermont as much as possible. It follows Friday’s “strong recommendation” to limit indoor private gatherings to 10 or fewer people.

Today’s press conference press kit contained a graphic (left) showing the dramatic rise in Covid cases in Canada after its Oct. 12 Thanksgiving.

The decision to not enforce (for now) limits on private gatherings is practical: it’s “very difficult to do,” Scott said. “That’s why we’re trying to make our case” for voluntary gatherings of 10 or fewer people. “People are getting more lax.”

The next step, if needed, would likely restrict the size of public, not private, gatherings, Scott said. State officials are collecting information on public behavior and transmission in Vermont restaurants, officials said.

“Simply refusing to do your part is dangerous for the rest of us,” Scott said. “I’m asking you to think about what you can do to stop the growing waves of infractions. Please do your part. I know it’s a choice. I’m asking you to make the right choice for the right reasons.”

“We are truly on a threshold, and the decisions we make will dictate our future…and I don’t mean our longterm future, I mean our immediate future,” Health Commissioner Mark Levine said. “Surrounded by a sea of red, I’m confident Vermonters can redouble their efforts.”

VPR reporter Peter Hirschfeld asked Scott what impact the travel ban would have on transmission. “We certainly hope it’s reduced,” Scott said. The state will ramp up messaging on border highways.

Read more of Guy Page’s reports. Vermont Daily is sponsored by True North Media.

Image courtesy of Public domain

10 thoughts on “Quarantine required for all non-essential travel in and out of Vermont

  1. Vermont has one of the lowest rates of infection in the Nation. Scott’s new name should be chicken little. Are the State Police going to set up roadblocks at all entrances to the State and start testing and tagging people?? People are just going to say F/U Vermont and stop coming to spend their money. Vermont is about to become one big gulag.

  2. Does the Governor think that all of those cars going north on Friday evening are going to stay here for two weeks? A weekend in their playground will be the extent of their stay.

  3. What this all boils down to is Human Experimentation without informed consent.

    Go read about the Nuremberg Code of 1949 and get loud.
    We are not Government owned lab rats, we are free people and every single government employee works for us!
    WE THE PEOPLE!!

  4. Not all “cases” are created equal, and it is stunning that our health commissioner doesn’t seem to understand the concept of cycle threshold in Covid-19 testing. Or if he does, he’s not letting on.

    As reported by the New York Times on August 29, data from Massachusetts, New York, and Nevada showed that “up to 90 percent of people testing positive carried barely any virus.” The Times also reported that the “C.D.C.’s own calculations suggest that it is extremely difficult to detect any live virus in a sample above a threshold of 33 cycles.” In July, Dr. Anthony Fauci confirmed the cycle threshold issue in an interview when he said, “If you get a cycle threshold of 35 or more, the chances of [the virus] being replication confident are minuscule. . . . You can almost never culture virus from a 37 threshold cycle, so I think if somebody does come in with 37, 38, even 36, you’ve got to say, you know, it’s just dead nucleotides, period.” See his comment at the 4:00 mark of this video:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Vy6fgaBPE&feature=youtu.be&t=260

    And what cycle threshold is Vermont using? 37.

    (Guy, we really need this question put to the commissioner at a press conference.)

  5. Huh. Must be still using Pelosi rules.
    Phil- neither I nor anyone I know were hanging out on the corner of Church and Main in Burlington this weekend.

  6. Gov. Phil Scott suspended the Vermont Covid-19 ‘travel map’ today. The State of Vermont
    has implemented a mandatory 14-day quarantine for any non-essential returning or traveling
    to Vermont………… Good luck with that !!

    I see my so-called neighbors, college students from out of state, hang around a few days
    then gone for a few days, after arriving back home multiple cars from multiple states show
    up, Gatherings with six to ten people with no mask, no social distancing, the party starts !!

    Good luck with this quarantine and keep promoting that VT has the lowest numbers, and
    we won’t be.

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