Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, Massachusetts is adding New Hampshire and Maine to its list of high-risk states for travel, triggering quarantine rules.
Starting Saturday, Massachusetts will start requiring that people arriving in the state from New Hampshire and Maine stay in quarantine for two weeks, the Department of Public Health has announced.
It leaves just Hawaii and Vermont as the two states that Massachusetts considers low-enough risk for quarantine-free travel.
The change goes into effect Saturday morning after midnight. Travelers who don't meet one of the exceptions will have to quarantine for two weeks or show they tested negative for COVID-19 within three days of arriving in Massachusetts.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders had said earlier this week that two "neighboring states" were expected to be added to the list of high-risk states this week.
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To be included on Massachusetts' list of low-risk states for travel, the state must have fewer than 10 average daily cases per 100,000 people.
Travelers from states that aren't on the low-risk list must fill out the Massachusetts Travel Form and quarantine for 14 days, according to the state's guidelines. That includes anyone who's coming from one of the low-risk states but stayed "for more than a transitory period of time in the last 14 days" in a higher-risk state.
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There are some exemptions, including for people who are going to higher-risk states just to commute or go to school. See the full order, which includes the exemptions, here.
Last week, New York, Washington State and Washington, D.C., were removed from the list of low-risk states, adding the quarantine requirement for travelers from those states.
Three weeks ago, Connecticut and New Jersey were taken off Massachusetts' list of low-risk states for travel, days after they'd done the same for Massachusetts. And two weeks ago, California was also removed.
