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Over the weekend, the Vermont State Police, municipal and county law enforcement officials visited 318 inns, motels and hotels across the state to determine whether local hospitality groups have complied with Gov. Phil Scott’s “stay home” executive order.
Michael Schirling, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Safety, said police found that lodging establishments were “overwhelmingly compliant.”
Scott issued the order last week. All residents of the state have been asked to stay at home through April 15 in order to mitigate spread of the coronavirus. Now, only companies that have been deemed by the state as “essential” during the COVID-19 crisis are allowed to stay open. Last Thursday, the governor also extended a temporary shut down of public K-12 schools through the end of the year.
Lodging establishments are only allowed to operate if they are providing housing for quarantined individuals, or housing homeless individuals or other vulnerable populations, according to guidance from the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. They may also provide accommodations for essential workers in health care, public health, critical infrastructure or public safety.
AirBnb issued an order last week requiring short-term renters to refrain from “accepting new guests” and making new reservations from March 25 through April 15, in a memo provided to VTDigger. Existing guests are allowed to stay in accomodations, but are not permitted to extend their stays.
A Vermont State Police trooper made a surprise visit over the weekend to Tucker Hill Inn in Fayston and told the owners the state was looking for field hospital accommodations, according to the Valley Reporter. He later said the real reason he came by was to make sure the inn wasn’t harboring people from out of state.
Schirling, who is a former commerce secretary, said while law enforcement found a few lodgings that were accepting out-of-state clientele, the governor is not, at this time, looking at specific enforcement actions, such as fines and misdemeanor crimes for individuals who have ignored the executive order.
“First and second homeowners are all part of the Vermont family,” Schirling said.
But when it comes to enforcement of the ‘stay home’ mandate, “nothing is off the table,” he continued.
The state of Vermont is highly dependent on the tourism economy and borders New Hampshire, New York and Massachusetts, but these days, in the wake of a virus that has led to mass hospitalizations and a high death toll elsewhere, there is a pervasive fear that the health care system here doesn’t have the capacity to handle COVID-19 cases involving year-round residents, let alone visitors from out of state. The governor will release modeling data for hospital capacity at a press conference to be held Tuesday, officials said.
Today, Gov. Phil Scott will make an announcement at an 11 a.m. press conference about the quarantining of out-of-state visitors. It is unclear more generally whether the governor will ask police to issue tickets to people for violating the self-isolation policy now in place through mid-April.
President Donald Trump has extended federal COVID-19 social distancing guidance through April 30, the Boston Globe has reported.
In New York City, which has been declared an epicenter of the pandemic, paramedics have been overwhelmed, receiving double the number of 911 distress calls than normal, the New York Times reported Sunday. Most of the patients are sick with COVID-19, including people who returned home after treatment and suffered cardiac arrests.
The city now accounts for about half of the nation’s COVID-19 cases, and had suffered the highest number of fatalities (720 deaths) in the nation as of Saturday, according to the Times. New Jersey has the second highest number of people testing positive for the virus. On Saturday night the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an advisory urging residents of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey to refrain from non-essential travel to other states.
Governors in other states, including South Carolina, Maryland, Florida and Texas are beginning to impose 14-day quarantines on New Yorkers, the Times reported Saturday. In Texas, law enforcement is making surprise visits to travelers to ensure compliance. Those who violate the mandate could be subject to a $1,000 fine and 180 days of jail time.
Rhode Island troopers are stopping drivers with New York plates, collecting information about people coming into the state and issuing quarantine advisories. Connecticut is also urging New York travelers to self-isolate, but has not issued a mandate.
More than 100 people a day in Massachusetts are “being diagnosed each day.”
Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Windham-Bennington, issued a statement by email Sunday, discouraging out-of-state visitors, including second homeowners, from coming to Vermont.
In a sign of how things have changed dramatically as a result of the spread of COVID-19, Sibilia would, in normal times, help to promote her popular tourist region to out-of-staters. But in the upheaval that has followed the highly contagious disease, she is now warning people to stay home.
“Please do not come to Vermont at this time,” Sibilia said. “It is legal, but also highly inappropriate.”
While the Vermont border remains open (only the president can close borders, Sibilia wrote), and nothing can stop people from coming to the state, “please be respectful of the high level of anxiety our year round residents are feeling about your travel here.”
“We are worried you are not behaving as if you are a carrier of the virus, we are worried you hoarding food from the small grocery stores and we are worried you requiring emergency healthcare services during your trip,” Sibilia continued.
