Daily coronavirus updates: Connecticut will impose fines on all travelers from ‘hot spot’ states with surging COVID-19 who don’t self-isolate, or fill out online health questionnaire

Gov. Ned Lamont announced Monday that Connecticut will require all travelers arriving from 22 states with high positive test rates for COVID-19 to register and fill out an online health questionnaire — and those who resist could eventually face a fine of $1,000.

“You go to a hot spot, you come back to this state, you either have a test that shows you tested negative or you must quarantine for 14 days,” Lamont said at a late afternoon news conference.

Since late June, Connecticut has required visitors from states with escalating cases to voluntarily quarantine but there was no enforcement.

Now, he said, “we are giving an option of having a $1,000 fine for people who refuse to fill out the form,” he said. “It’s one more way that we can remind people that we’re taking this seriously.”

Lamont said there are “no plans” to begin issuing the fines right now. But he made his announcement Monday so “people know there’s a possibility and there could be some penalties so they’re be serious about taking the quarantine seriously.”

In coming days Lamont said he would issue an executive order that requires anyone traveling from a state that has a new daily positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents or a state with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average to self-quarantine for a 14-day period from the time of last contact within the identified state.

In New York, those who refuse to quarantine could be fined $2,000 for a first offense and $5,000 for the second offense. Fines could eventually reach up to $10,000.

The rules apply to those traveling to Connecticut by car, as well as by air.

The full list of states on the quarantine list includes Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. Travelers from those states must self-quarantine for a 14-day period from the time of last contact within the identified state.

Public health officials will be dispatched to the airport to monitor compliance and make sure travelers are filling out the public health form, he said. Lamont spokesperson Max Reiss said the “primary” enforcement will be at Bradley Airport, but there could be spot checks at other locations, such as train stations and highway rest areas.

“This is a form you have to fill out before you fly to Connecticut,” Lamont said. It will include health questions as well as a way for public health officials to contact travelers in case of an outbreak.

“We know that COVID came to this part of the country by airplane, and we don’t want it to come by airplane again,” Lamont said.

It will apply to anyone traveling to Connecticut from any state where infection rates currently top 10%.

In announcing the new policy, the governor said he wanted to preserve the progress the state has made in fighting the virus.

“The numbers are all trending, blessedly, in the right direction, still,” Lamont said at a later afternoon briefing.

The new rules are “one more way we can remind people we’re taking this seriously,” he said.

Over the weekend, 162 COVID-19 cases were identified, out of more than 27,000 tests performed statewide since Friday, according to the state’s Monday update.

That represents a positivity rate of just 0.6%, among the lowest rates the state has recorded to date from highs of 40% positivity and more at the pandemic’s height in April.

The low positivity rate remains one of Lamont’s leading indicators that the state is successfully insulated from the record increases in cases being recorded in several other parts of the country, although “we are watching this like a hawk,” he added.

The state also reported another 10 COVID-19 deaths through the weekend, bringing the total to 4,406, and that hospitalized patients have dropped by to 54 total statewide. There have been more than 140,000 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Research Center.

Connecticut has three counties — Hartford, Fairfield and New Haven — that rank among the top 25 for COVID-19 deaths in the country, according to Johns Hopkins.

Also during Monday’s briefing, Lamont and state education Commissioner Miguel A. Cardona said this week will provide a clearer picture of school reopening plans, though public health trends in August could result in a change of plans.

“We’re continuing … to plan for full reopening,” Cardona said, noting that the plan also includes remote and hybrid options as well as an opt-out model for parents who don’t want their children to attend classes in person.

Local school superintendents are expected to release their plans on Friday.

“We really think it’s so key if we can get those kids back to school, but only if we’re going back to school safely,” Lamont said. “That’s priority number one, two and three.”