Inslee issues travel advisory, asking people entering the state to quarantine for 14 days
Gov. Jay Inslee on Friday issued a travel advisory asking travelers arriving in Washington from out-of-state for non-essential travel to voluntarily self-quarantine for 14 days after they arrive, and encouraging residents to stay home or in their region if possible.
The governors of Oregon and California also issued similar travel advisories.
“COVID-19 cases have doubled in Washington over the past two weeks. This puts our state in as dangerous a position today as we were in March,” Inslee said in a prepared statement. “Limiting and reducing travel is one way to reduce further spread of the disease. I am happy to partner with California and Oregon in this effort to help protect lives up and down the West Coast.”
Asked to characterize the Washington advisory’s authority — whether it is a mandate and whether there are consequences for not following it — Governor’s Office spokesperson Mike Faulk wrote in an email that “Put simply: These are recommendations, not requirements.”
The advisory applies to “non-essential travel,” which includes people traveling for tourism and recreation. “Essential” travel, by contrast, includes traveling for causes such as medical purposes, school, or work. More complete definitions are available online.
All three governors are quoted in a news release out of Inslee’s office, with Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and California Gov. Gavin Newsom expressing concern about overwhelming hospital systems and stressing the risk of travel during the ongoing surge in virus cases.
A spokesperson for Inslee’s office confirmed in an email to McClatchy that the three states’ advisories are identical. They ask travelers arriving from outside the states to limit interactions to members of their immediate household, in addition to self-quarantining for 14 days.
The advisory comes the morning after Gov. Inslee and Trudi Inslee addressed the state, urging residents to rethink their holiday plans and the governor said additional measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 would be announced “in the next few days.”
According to Faulk, additional announcements are still expected next week.
To Washington’s south, Oregon Gov. Brown on Friday announced a statewide “Two-Week Freeze” Nov. 18-Dec. 2.
Among other impacts, the move limits restaurants to take-out and delivery only and closes gyms, event venues, indoor recreational facilities and indoor and outdoor entertainment activities. It also limits grocery stores, pharmacies, retail stores, and malls to a 75% capacity maximum, social gatherings to six people or fewer from no more than two households, and faith-based organizations to 25 people indoors or 50 outdoors. Businesses are required to mandate work-from-home as much as possible and close offices to the public.
“Hotspot counties will likely need to stay in the Freeze for much longer than two weeks,” Brown said in a press release, including as an example that the measures would last at least twice as long in Multnomah County, home to Portland.
This story was originally published November 13, 2020 at 10:18 AM with the headline "Inslee issues travel advisory, asking people entering the state to quarantine for 14 days."
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