Chicago Travel Order - 14 day quarantine

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The order (as I read it) is 14 days or the duration of your time in Chicago whichever is shorter. So you would come in, go to your hotel, stay for the night, and leave.
This is similar to the update I read for Albuquerque. If you are there for a shorter duration, you self-quarantine the entire time.
 
The idea is to stop people coming from places with high infection rates from going out all over the area and potentially infecting scads of folks. If you just go to one place and stay, it is much easier to trace any people who have been in contact with you if you end being infected. Too many people are spreading the virus either with no symptoms, or before they show.
 
After weeks of no new cases in my county in NYS, we just had 3 new cases this week. All 3 just came back home to NYS and flew in this week - from FLORIDA!

So this rule is also trying to stop someone from infecting others in that new area. If you are just “passing thru” or connecting, I don’t think it would apply.
 

Great, I just. 2 hrs ago, booked PDX-CHI, staying overnight CHI because I couldn't make either the3 Eagle ot the SWC. What now???

Great. Two hours ago I booked a train from PDX to CHI in early Sept.

It's two months from now but *** who knows when this crap will end??

We didn't do this for the flu. Something else is going on here, I don't know what.
 
Great, I just. 2 hrs ago, booked PDX-CHI, staying overnight CHI because I couldn't make either the3 Eagle ot the SWC. What now???



Great. Two hours ago I booked a train from PDX to CHI in early Sept.

It's two months from now but *** who knows when this crap will end??

We didn't do this for the flu. Something else is going on here, I don't know what.
It's much more dangerous than the flu! Read up about it!
 
I have a Texas Eagle trip scheduled for the end of September. I am coming in on the Empire Builder from Spokane and as of right now will be just passing through Chicago, catching the CONO to Champaign, stay with a relative one day and catch the TE in Bloomington the day after that. Something has come up with my relative that might change that, and I'd have to stay in Chicago. Thankfully, even though my home state of Washington heralded the beginning of the coronavirus in the US, the numbers are reasonably low, though like most states, are seeing increases in cases again. However, we haven't had any 7 day rolling period where we come close to the 15 cases/100000 population threshold average. In fact, it's been less than half that, even with a surge of new cases. Hopefully it stays that way. And with our governor instituting a mandatory mask policy statewide, and just today adding to that by requiring businesses to refuse service to anyone without a mask, our rate will plummet.
 
I have a Texas Eagle trip scheduled for the end of September. I am coming in on the Empire Builder from Spokane and as of right now will be just passing through Chicago, catching the CONO to Champaign, stay with a relative one day and catch the TE in Bloomington the day after that. Something has come up with my relative that might change that, and I'd have to stay in Chicago. Thankfully, even though my home state of Washington heralded the beginning of the coronavirus in the US, the numbers are reasonably low, though like most states, are seeing increases in cases again. However, we haven't had any 7 day rolling period where we come close to the 15 cases/100000 population threshold average. In fact, it's been less than half that, even with a surge of new cases. Hopefully it stays that way. And with our governor instituting a mandatory mask policy statewide, and just today adding to that by requiring businesses to refuse service to anyone without a mask, our rate will plummet.
I'd be flexible on taking the Eagle Jeff. Of course conditions can change, but with School starting back up and King Football ( the Relgion of Texas)starting, plus public officials pushing to Open everything up yesterday, Sadly I predict that Texas still wont be safe to visit in September.( plus they might implement the 3 days a week Schedule for LD Trains before October 1st, so you might want to consider waiting awhile on this trip!)

Stay safe, it's a Jungle out there!!
 
It's much more dangerous than the flu! Read up about it!

Thanks for your concern Jim. I have been paying attention, unfortunately some of the information out there is conflicting.

Add to that, I am currently living in a county that has had single-digit covid-19 cases and zero deaths. During the winter of 2018-2019 41 people died of flu or of complications brought on by flu. We do go occasionally go into a town//county hit harder than we have been and we use precautions. But we do pretty much think of flu as more dangerous, based on our experience.
 
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New Mexico? The Chicago one is just for Chicago city limits.
Yes. The governor of New Mexico has (re?)-instituted a 14 day quarantine for travelers from ANY other state to ANYWHERE in NM as of July 1st. Not sure how it can be enforced, but I suppose she re-instituted it to discourage travelers ahead of hand. Our economy is highly tourist-dependent, so everyone is mournful.
 
But we do pretty much think of flu as more dangerous, based on experience.

Unfortunately, that experience is not empirically validated. Our worst flu season was the 1967 flu, in which over an 18 month period 100,000 Americans died. In four months, we've blown completely past that mark, with dramatically increasing transmission rates. Still a ways to go before we hit the all-time record of the 1918 flu--but again, that took two years to kill 600,000 plus. We are sadly on pace to beat this record, if COVID-19 lasts as long as the 1918 flu. Let's hope that isn't the case!
 
Yep, but it's for the entire state. Not sure how it could be enforced.
Oops, yes. I was Albuquerque-focused because the email was from the "Visit Albuquerque" association and that's where I'm planning to travel in January.
 
Great, I just. 2 hrs ago, booked PDX-CHI, staying overnight CHI because I couldn't make either the3 Eagle ot the SWC. What now???



Great. Two hours ago I booked a train from PDX to CHI in early Sept.

It's two months from now but *** who knows when this crap will end??

We didn't do this for the flu. Something else is going on here, I don't know what.
🤔 Idaho is the only state on the entire Empire Builder route subject to the order, so unless Oregon's numbers get so bad that it ends up on the list in early September, it shouldn't affect your plans.
 
🤔 Idaho is the only state on the entire Empire Builder route subject to the order, so unless Oregon's numbers get so bad that it ends up on the list in early September, it shouldn't affect your plans.

September is two months away.

Look back two months ago at the states where the quarantine order now applies. Where were their numbers back then?

If this COVID pandemic has taught me anything, it is to no bother planning travel more than a few days out, and don’t assume that travel to be much more than to a neighboring state (if that).
 
Unfortunately, that experience is not empirically validated. Our worst flu season was the 1967 flu, in which over an 18 month period 100,000 Americans died. In four months, we've blown completely past that mark, with dramatically increasing transmission rates. Still a ways to go before we hit the all-time record of the 1918 flu--but again, that took two years to kill 600,000 plus. We are sadly on pace to beat this record, if COVID-19 lasts as long as the 1918 flu. Let's hope that isn't the case!

Flu can be bad, but we are use to them. Plus, we have a vaccine (thought that does't always work... its hit-or-miss each year).

A virus brings to mind a bad sci-fi story. While home, I watched some Star Trek re-runs. Its interesting the number of episodes where, even as a minor story line in the background, the Enterprise needs to rescue some planet from a killer virus.

BTW, "It's estimated that the 1918 flu killed anywhere from 20 million to 100 million people."
 
Thanks for your concern Jim. I have been paying attention, unfortunately some of the information out there is conflicting.

Add to that, I am currently living in a county that has had single-digit covid-19 cases and zero deaths. During the winter of 2018-2019 41 people died of flu or of complications brought on by flu. We do go occasionally go into a town//county hit harder than we have been and we use precautions. But we do pretty much think of flu as more dangerous, based on our experience.

Based on the information I've seen and heard, COVID-19 is more transmissible than seasonal influenza, but it's not necessarily more dangerous. Most people who become infected have mild symptoms (or no symptoms at all). This is also true of people who were infected but have now recovered. Plus, most of the hospitalizations are of patients who happen to test positive for the virus (because they have to be tested when going to hospitals for unrelated treatments and procedures). There's a difference between being hospitalized WITH COVID-19 and being hospitalized BECAUSE of it.

Also, the reason that we're seeing and hearing about an uptick in cases in several states is because there's more testing going on (both in hospitals as mentioned above and at other testing locations). More tests will yield more positive results, but the important number there is the percentage of positive results in relation to total tests done. That number continues to trend downward overall as the number of people tested increases.

Another thing to consider is that positive infection results are being combined with antibody tests. What this means is that someone who contracted the virus but is not currently infected will still be counted as a "positive" based on the fact that he/she has the antibodies to the virus.

TL;DR, the likelihood of catching COVID-19 is greater than catching the flu, but you're not necessarily more likely to become seriously ill from it.
 
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