State Travel Restrictions During COVID-19: A Complete Guide

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By CNT Editors

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, travel restrictions are constantly emerging—and not just internationally. A decent number of state travel restrictions have come up, to help tame spiking numbers (in cases like Florida) and to preserve hard-fought decreasing infection numbers (as in New York). Some states have imposed a mandatory quarantine upon arrival; in other destinations, negative COVID-19 tests must be presented to enter.

Whether you’re considering a short summer road trip, or looking to visit loved ones, we’ve rounded up every U.S. state with travel restrictions so you know how to prepare for crossing state borders. Of course, deciding whether to travel this summer is highly personal, and should take into account safety and other factors of personal risk, case count in your destination, and more. This guide is intended to answer just one of the many questions worth considering before hitting the road.

Read on for our complete guide to COVID state travel restrictions right now.

All visitors entering Alaska must complete a traveler declaration form, and either arrive with proof of a negative COVID-19 test, take a test upon arrival, or self-quarantine for 14 days or the duration of the trip, whichever is shorter.

For travelers taking a test before arrival, the restrictions vary based on when the test was taken. If tested within 72 hours of arrival, and able to show negative results, travelers may enter. If tested less recently than 72 hours, regardless of negative results, travelers will need to submit to a new test upon arrival. If tested within 72 hours to five days of arrival but still waiting for test results at the time of entry, travelers will need to self-quarantine until they receive their results. In all of the above circumstances, travelers must take another test seven to 14 days after arrival, at a site within Alaska, at the traveler’s expense.

Those who need to take tests upon arrival must do so at their own expense, and must self-quarantine until negative results are received. The only exception from the above is recovered asymptomatics who can prove their condition (positive results of a molecular-based test taken more than three weeks prior to arrival, and a medical provider’s note of recovery required), and Alaska residents who have been out of the state for five days or less (for whom the options are to take a test upon arrival or self-quarantine for 14 days; those who left for less than 24 hours can re-enter without doing either).

Currently, Connecticut’s travel restrictions focus on those arriving from areas with higher infection rates. Anyone entering Connecticut from a state with a current daily positive test rate higher than 10 cases per 10,000 residents, or a state with a 10 percent or higher positivity average over the past seven days, must self-quarantine for 14 days from the last date they were in said state. (Find the above data on the COVID Tracking Project’s site, or on your own state government’s website.)

Additionally, travelers from 31 states must fill out a health travel form upon arrival (list of states and form found here).

Travelers and residents arriving from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are required to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival, or the duration of their trip, whichever is shorter. Anyone caught violating this mandate could face a fine of up to $500, or 60 days imprisonment.

Travelers will need to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in Hawaii.

There is a mandatory self-quarantine requirement for all individuals arriving in Hawaii, for 14 days or the duration of the visit, whichever is shorter. Upon arrival, travelers will be asked to sign a statement acknowledging that violating this order is a criminal offense, punishable by up to $5000 in fines, and/or a year imprisonment.

Starting September 1, travelers will have the option to avoid quarantining by taking a test within 72 hours prior to arrival and showing negative results upon landing. Those who have taken a test but have not yet received results will need to quarantine until they can prove they tested negatively. (Further details and restrictions here.) This will not include an option for testing upon arrival.

For inter-island travel, all travelers must fill out a health declaration form within 24 hours of flight departure. Travelers will also be subject to temperature checks, and those testing over 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit will not be allowed to fly.

Idaho is encouraging those entering from states with greater community spread or case rates than Idaho’s to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. Before traveling, you can check Idaho’s website and your home state’s for these data points.

The Illinois Department of Public Health is asking individuals arriving in the state from a country with a Level 3 Travel Health Notice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to self-quarantine for 14 days.

While there aren’t other statewide travel restrictions in place in Illinois, its largest city—Chicago—has a travel order mandating visitors from states experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases self-quarantine upon arrival. There are currently 18 states the city requires a quarantine from: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah. The Chicago Department of Public Health says that anyone entering the city from a state on the list must self-quarantine “for a 14-day period from the time of last contact within the identified state.” The list is reviewed and updated by officials each week.

Kansas officials have mandated a 14-day home quarantine for anyone arriving from states with “widespread community transmission,” which currently includes just two states: Arizona and Florida. According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, travelers will also be subject to the state’s two-week quarantine requirements if they traveled on a cruise ship, river cruise, or are arriving from Bahrain, French Guiana, or a country with a Level 3 Travel Health Notice from the CDC.

Maine has some of the strictest travel restrictions in the country.

Maine has some of the country’s most strident travel restrictions in place. Individuals arriving from almost all states must self-quarantine for 14 days after arrival, unless they can provide a negative COVID-19 test result. To qualify, the test must be a Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and be taken within the last 72 hours (antigen or antibody tests are not accepted). The Maine Division of Disease Surveillance is strongly urging a “Know Before You Go” policy—meaning anyone planning to go to Maine should receive a PCR test for COVID-19 before leaving their home state. The few exceptions to the quarantine mandate are travelers from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

Anyone arriving in Massachusetts must self-quarantine for 14 days. Travelers from Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New York, and New Jersey are exempt from the quarantine regulation, as are essential workers traveling to the state for professional purposes.

New Hampshire officials are asking visitors from out of state to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. Travelers coming to the state for stays at any lodging property are required to bring signed paperwork stating that they self-isolated at home for at least the previous 14 days before travel. (The rule covers hotels, motels, B&Bs, cabins, cottages, condominiums, and other short-term rentals.) These rules, however, do not apply to visitors from surrounding New England states, including Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, who can visit New Hampshire without restrictions.

Anyone entering New Jersey—including permanent New Jersey residents—from a state with either a high infection rate (more than 10 per 100,000 residents over a seven day rolling average) or high positive test for COVID-19 (greater than 10 percent over a seven day rolling average) is advised a self-quarantine in either their home or hotel. An updated list of states at or exceeding one or both of those criteria is available on the state’s COVID-19 website. Business travelers and essential workers are exempt from the quarantine but should still adhere to social distancing and other mitigation guidelines from the CDC. New Jersey currently has a mask mandate in effect requiring all people to wear masks both inside and outside, including at places like beaches and boardwalks. Police may issue a summons to violators.

New York requires anyone arriving from a state with either a high infection rate (more than 10 per 100,000 residents over a seven day rolling average) or high positive test for COVID-19 (greater than 10 percent over a seven day rolling average) to quarantine for 14 days. An updated list of states at or exceeding one or both of those criteria is available on New York’s health department website. Additionally, anyone entering New York from those states is required to fill out a traveler health form that includes information about where you will be staying, where you have been prior, and whether you have or have had any COVID-19 symptoms. Officers will be stationed at airports to collect forms, and anyone failing to fill out a form will be subject to a $2,000 fine. These mandates apply to residents as well. Those just passing through New York, or those who simply passed through one of the designated states, are exempt.

Anyone entering New Mexico, including permanent residents, must self-quarantine for 14 days or the duration of their trip, whichever is shorter. Essential workers, including healthcare workers, government workers, and airline employees, are exempt from the quarantine requirement. Those passing through the state are asked to only stop for essential activities like pumping gas or buying food. New Mexico also has a mask mandate in all public places unless a person is eating, drinking, or exercising. Anyone failing to comply with the mask mandate is subject to a $100 fine.

Anyone entering Pennsylvania from states deemed at-risk is advised to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. An updated list of states considered at-risk is available on the state’s health department website.

In Newport, Rhode Island, those without a mask could face fines.

Travelers visiting from states with a positivity rate of COVID-19 greater than 5 percent (that list currently includes 33 states and Puerto Rico, at the time of publishing) can only enter Rhode Island by either showing a negative COVID-19 result for a test taken no more than 72 hours before your arrival, paying for a COVID-19 test upon arrival at one of the state’s recommended sites (and then quarantining until you receive negative results), or self-quarantining for 14 days. Note that there is also a mandatory mask policy for public places across the state, and when inside businesses. (In Newport, those without a mask will be given a warning, followed by a $100 fine for subsequent offenses.)

As of May, South Carolina no longer has official restrictions for travelers, though the state government suggests that travelers quarantine for two weeks from when they left their original departure point.

Vermont’s COVID state travel restrictions are complicated. If you’re driving to Vermont from a county in a Northeastern state that has less than 400 active cases per million residents, you’re in the clear and can move around with the usual COVID-19 precautions. (You can find a map that shows what counties don’t have to quarantine here.) If you’re driving in from outside of the approved counties or Northeast, you can either quarantine for 14 days before your trip, or quarantine for just seven days, if able to show proof of negative test results upon entering Vermont. If you’re flying or taking the train or a bus into the state, you must either quarantine for 14 days or quarantine for seven days and get negative COVID-19 test results at the end of your isolation. (The only time you can leave your quarantine location in those seven days is to get a test.)

We’re reporting on how COVID-19 impacts travel on a daily basis. Find all of our coronavirus coverage and travel resources here.

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