Chicago made it official Tuesday, adding neighboring Indiana to its emergency travel order that requires travelers returning to the city from there to stay inside for two weeks because of high COVID-19 case counts.
The Hoosier State’s inclusion on Chicago’s self-quarantine list was expected.
The city last week “strongly advised” Chicago residents against traveling to Indiana, pointing to the fact the state had already passed the bench mark of more than 15 new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period that warrants getting added to the list.
“I am very concerned that Indiana is a state that is wishing that COVID were over, and it’s not,” city Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said then.
Starting Friday, people traveling into Chicago from Indiana will be expected to quarantine themselves for 14 days. Violators can face a fine, though the city has taken few steps to enforce the rules.
“I just want you and your families to be able to avoid COVID,” Arwady said. “And one of the best ways you can do that is to not have unnecessary exposure to high-risk settings for COVID. And Indiana has, different than Chicago, loosened all restrictions related to COVID-19. And so it’s not just that their rates are higher, although they are, it’s that a lot of the science-based things that we have in place here, ranging from masks, to sizes of gatherings, to distance at a restaurant, are currently not in place (there).”
Indiana joins Wisconsin, which was placed back on Chicago’s travel warning list three weeks ago amid skyrocketing coronavirus numbers there.
And like with Wisconsin, people who commute across the Indiana state line to or from Chicago to work or go to school will be exempt from the quarantine rule, a nod to the symbiotic relationship between the neighboring states. But workers in Chicago from Indiana will be expected to avoid restaurants, bars and other public spaces in the city.
Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said he and his wife, Marissa, were in downtown Chicago just last weekend having dinner. Any quarantine action Chicago imposes against its northwest Indiana neighbors would be shortsighted, he said, if it were actually something the city could do with any might behind it.
“Unless the city is going to put barriers up between the two states, people are still going to do what they want to do,” McDermott said. “We’re still going to drive back and forth unfettered. I’m still going to ride my bike on the trails downtown. I’ll wear a mask and social distance because I’m an adult, but what (Lightfoot) is doing is scaring people, and that isn’t going to help the city.
“We’re a republic, and I have a right to drive to Illinois as much as someone else has a right to drive to Indiana. If she wants to test that issue, that’s entirely up to her, but it’s an advisory opinion that’s not really going to do anything.”
South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Speros Batistatos agreed, saying the edict is “unenforceable.”
“Unless they’re going to put Illinois State Police at (Interstate) 80-94, the toll road and all other points in between, who’s going to stop anyone?” Batistatos said. “It’s laughable.”
Batistatos also noted that because of Chicago’s and Illinois’ restrictions, Illinois residents have come to Indiana in droves, so any restrictions on traveling between the two defy entertaining, especially when the economies are so intertwined.
“This isn’t the Great Wall of China,” he said.
Whiting Mayor Steve Spebar said he was disappointed to hear about Indiana being added to Chicago’s travel quarantine list, but said he understands given the circumstances.
“I’m not happy about it, but it’s obviously their decision,” Spebar said. “I don’t know if it will change people’s behavior or traffic patterns.”
In all, there are now 26 states or territories on Chicago’s self-quarantine list: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
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Arwady on Tuesday noted the other areas of trouble around Chicago. “Wisconsin has a very poorly controlled outbreak. Indiana has a poorly controlled outbreak,” Arwady said. “Iowa, Missouri and parts of Downstate Illinois are not in as strong control as we are here in Chicago. And we are not in as strong control in Chicago this week as we were last week.”
Michelle L. Quinn is a Post-Tribune freelance reporter.