PORTLAND, Maine – Families who take a summer vacation before classes begin would do better to do their homework with COVID-19 restrictions before loading the van.
The network of state and local quarantines fits day by day: New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have ordered visitors from 34 states to quarantine them for 14 days. Chicago and Washington, D.C., each decided travelers from about two dozen states. Other states have their own lists. Some have the opportunity for visitors to take the test.
“Complicated doesn’t begin to describe it. I feel sorry for people. They just want to go to Cape Cod. They want to go to Vermont. I don’t know what to tell them. People are pretty much left on their own to figure out,” said Kathy Kutrubes, owner of a travel agency in Boston.
Restrictions, and confusion, are contributing to a sharp drop in travel, putting a hard blow to a key industry.
Before the outbreak, Americans were expected to make 2.3 billion domestic trips this year, according to the U.S. Travel Association. But that figure is expected to fall by around 30% to 1.6 billion, the lowest point since 1991. Normally, almost a third of nationals take up position in the summer.
Overseas, declining tourism through U.S. visitors and restrictions on border crossings have also led many travel-related companies to know if they will survive.
In news about the pandemic:
Britain has suspended the easing of some of its virus restrictions just a few hours in advance, as the number of instances is for the first time since May.
U.S. customer spending rose 5.6 percent in June, recovering some of the lost floor when the virus-related economic downturn began in March. But the resurgence of the virus in much of the country may hamper further progress.
The U.S. government’s top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told Congress that it is confident that a coronavirus vaccine will be in condition by early 2021 and will be widely applied within the year.
Hurricane Isaias technique forced the closure of some control sites in Florida, even when the state reported a record number of deaths for the fourth day in a row, at 257.
Coronavirus is to blame for more than 150,000 deaths in the United States and more than a million in the world.
With respect to restrictions in the United States, the scenario varies considerably. Many states have no restrictions on the national matrix. But the number of quarantine states is expanding as governors move to protect citizens amid outbreaks in places like Florida, Texas and Arizona.
The effects are confusing to say the least.