@twoinanddone the answer is yes. Same with NY. If I travelled to Florida for vacation, I would have to quarantine when I returned. This makes sense because I can pick up COVID in a high risk area, bring it home and spread it.
If you test before you leave MA and return 4 days (96 hours) later, the test you took before you left won’t be within 72 hours of your arrival in state. Why would you test the day before you go? It doesn’t help the people in your destination state. If you wanted to follow the spirit of the MA law and were committed to the purpose, which is to reduce the spread of Covid in your state, you could test after you return from out of state to make sure you didn’t pick Covid up on your travels.
Yes, I just got a rapid test last week in MA with no symptoms. Results in 15 minutes.
@tulips721, do you mind sharing what city you got that test?
so MA is giving rapid tests…perfect! This will help all incoming students avoid having to isolate for 14 days.
@CottonTales @tulips721 Yes, please share, I know people that could use that information.
@tulips721 Where in MA did you get a rapid test and how were you able to schedule it?
Last night I went online to look at local testing centers to see how difficult it is to get a test and found that it is impossible. Non-referral required sites are completely booked for the next month and are not accepting new signups. All referral sites require symptoms or obvious exposure.
And if it wasn’t obvious from my original posting, I think the law is stupid and I have no desire to comply with the spirit of it if there is a loophole that will get me around it. PA is not on the no travel list for NY and NJ, but is in MA. Why would someone traveling from NY to PA and then returning home not have to quarantine, but someone from MA does? Does NY care less about covid than MA?
@me29034 maybe if more people respected the laws, we can stop these outbreaks and life can get back to normal.
Each state makes its own decisions - that’s the system in our country. It doesn’t matter if you think the law is stupid or not. Please obey it.
And maybe if the laws made sense, people would respect them.
Sorry, but I am not a blind rule follower. PA is either a safe state to travel to or not.
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To be fair…it’s not a law. I would recommend everyone follows the law.
Interesting that MA would have this new restriction but not enough testing. In this case, they are basically asking all MA residents who travel to “hotter” states to quarantine upon return. Can’t get a test? That’s the only other option. It’s really discouraging people to travel. Period. Maybe that’s the point.
We need to fly into Boston to grab S19’s college belongings from his roommate’s house. They were nice enough to pack it all up for him and bring it home when we couldn’t get to Maine. We will try our best to get a test before we leave. I don’t know how quickly tests in Illinois will be coming back at that point. The plan is to fly in, spend one night in Boston getting things and visiting with that family (socially distanced of course!) then go to Maine. I’m not so concerned since it’s just one night and we won’t be out and about it public really. But, if we don’t have a test, I suppose that’s not playing by the rules. But, again, I see zero way to fix that. We have little choice but to go at this point.
Maine then poses the same problem but we will do what we can. We currently have two nights of a hotel booked so we can move S19 in and have time to go shopping and make sure he has what he needs. We could change that to one night and will do that if we can get everything done. Then, it’s drive back to Boston and come home.
We will be very careful. Maybe this is naive but we won’t really be near anyone except the friends in Boston. We will wear masks in public at all times. We aren’t going to eat inside anywhere. For these states like MA and ME that have masking rules, I don’t understand why they need tests and quarantine. Maybe because people aren’t social distancing and wearing masks? I have very little worry that we will be bringing the virus with us and spreading it in MA or in ME. And, like I said, we will do everything we can to get a test.
Well, it’s an “executive order” which carries the force of a law and you can be fined $500 if you don’t follow it, so I would recommend that it be followed.
Agreed, but it will be enforced less frequently than exceeding the speed limit on the Mass Pike, which is an actual law. The State Police will not stop out of state cars. The enforcement is via the Department of Public Health, and registering is completely on the honor system for those that travel by car. Grab your popcorn for the college student invasion. The Cape and Islands will be chock full of unreported visitors until Labor Day.
So say all the asymptomatic spreaders. The parent group for my kid’s school is chock full of “takeout is the same as having food delivered to my hotel in terms of MA quarantine compliance, right?” and “A quick trip to Bed Bath and Beyond while moving my kid in won’t make that much difference,” and “where in the surrounding states can we overnight and shop so we can skirt the quarantine rules.”
Everyone can justify their own behavior as okay because they are not high risk, that they couldn’t be spreading the virus, that they are being extra careful, are from a low risk area. You either follow the governor’s orders or you don’t.
My daughter traveled from a very low risk area to CT to a wedding 2 weeks ago. She was within the rules (at the time, Wyoming was not on the CT list requiring quarantine) and allowed to travel. Once she traveled she appreciated the real risk as people were ‘roaming freely’ as she put it. She saw a lot of people without masks and not social distancing. The fact is that CT just has a lot more people than WY, and more people = more transmission.
Well, our town has very few cases, We haven’t left our town since Feb. We always wear masks when we are out near other people and in all stores. We have not once eaten inside a restaurant. And we will get a test before we leave but how can I guarantee that our tests come back within 72 hours of our flight?
We are not the only ones flying kids back to school. There must be at thousands (tens of thousands?) flying with a student back to college. Hopefully all can get tests before they go but we also know we could catch it during the trip so that is not a perfect solution. No parent is going to fly to a state and quarantine for 14 days in a hotel before taking their student to school.
Google Photo of Revelers on Boston Harbor Cruise Draws Questions
Google Photos: Some social distancing, but mostly crowds as people flock to local beaches
Maybe people should avoid Massachusetts all together. They may want to clean up their glass house before throwing any stones at other states. The Governor’s office is less than 3 miles from both of these incidents. Shouldn’t these people register with the Department of Health?
They are looking into both …but it’s not a “glass houses” . It is a fact that MA has lower numbers than the sates on the “hot” list. So it is easy to understand the need to quarantine in order to reduce risk of spread.
I’m from NY. We were banned from almost every state when our numbers were high…we cancelled our vacation to Florida. We didn’t try to sneak in or beat the system.
It’s a pandemic and I don’t understand the noncompliance.
Remember when Cuomo sued Rhode Island? Also, it’s pretty difficult to compare NY at its worst to virtually any other state.