Chicago travel order: City removes Florida, Hawaii, Washington D.C. from COVID advisory list

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Chicago Department of Public Health removed two states and the District of Columbia from its weekly COVID-19 Travel Advisory Tuesday.

The city's COVID-19 quarantine advisory includes 45 states and two territories after the removal of Florida, Hawaii and D.C.

They were among the six states and territories whose daily COVID case rates per 100,000 residents were below 15 in last week's Travel Advisory. States are removed from the Travel Advisory when they maintain a daily COVID case rate below 15 per 100,000 residents in two consecutive weeks, city officials said. An additional four states - Maryland, Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana - whose daily COVID case rates are currently below 15, could come off the Travel Advisory next week.

Currently, every state or territory except for California, Connecticut, D.C., Florida, Hawaii and Puerto Rico are on the Travel Advisory.

SEE MORE: Chicago Travel Advisory at 47 states, 3 territories

Officials recommend that unvaccinated travelers should get tested one to three days before leaving on the trip as well as getting tested three to five days after returning. Unvaccinated travelers are asked to self-quarantine for seven days after returning from travel even if they test negative. Those who do not get tested should self-quarantine for 10 days after travel and avoid those at high-risk for COVID for 14 days after travel.

The U.S. average daily case rate per 100,000 residents is 20.4 - down from 25.7 last week. Four weeks ago the national daily case rate per 100,000 residents was 35.8. Illinois' daily case rate currently is 13.2, down slightly from 13.6 last week (four weeks ago it was 22.4). Chicago's daily case rate per 100,000 residents is 10.7, its lowest since late July.

The states and territories with the highest daily COVID case rates - Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, Montana and Guam - are generally the same as they have been over the past month. But one potentially concerning development for Chicago is the inclusion of a handful of Midwest states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan, among the 15 states with the highest daily rates of COVID cases per 100,000 residents, Chicago officials said.

"The fact that some of our fellow Midwest states have had their case rates rise steeply shows how fragile our advances can be," CDPH Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said. "We must continue to be vigilant with vaccinations and mask-wearing if we're going to keep COVID down as the temperatures come down."

The video in the player above is from an earlier report.