Vermont has updated its state quarantine rules, and now includes every New Hampshire county among areas with travel restrictions.
Vermont requires a quarantine for travelers to and from any county with over 400 COVID-19 cases per million. Counties with 400-799 cases are coded "yellow," and those with more than 800 cases are "red."
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Travelers going to and from those counties must quarantine for 14 days, or 7 days with a negative COVID test.
All ten New Hampshire counties now have quarantine requirements in Vermont. (Click here to see Vermont's updated cross-state travel restriction map.)
Residents of the Upper Valley travel regularly across the state border between Vermont and New Hampshire.
Grafton County commissioner Linda Lauer says she was caught off guard by the restriction.
“This all came as a surprise to me,” Lauer said. “Should this situation continue on, there would be an impact on our ski areas, [like] Cannon [Mountain]...so I would hope that this would not impact our ski seasons.”
She added, “We certainly, right now, are nowhere near where we were in the April, May time frame, but we are approaching it.”
The Upper Valley Aquatic Center in White River Junction, Vermont has had to restrict access to Grafton County residents. But director Joe Major says the move has resulted in more awareness about the community spread of COVID-19.
“A lot of our members are going ahead and getting the test which, quite frankly, may have been a good byproduct of the situation because you have more people that are going to get tested and find out,” Major said.
Essential travel is still allowed in all counties, which includes commuting to work, school or shopping for groceries.
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This story was originally published Oct. 15, 2020 when six New Hampshire counties on Vermont's restricted travel list. It was updated Oct. 21 with news that Coos County was added to the list, and again on October 29, with every county on the list.
