NEWFANE — For months, the website for this town’s Rock River swimming holes has reported Covid-19 travel restrictions for out-of-staters from such pandemic hot spots as Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. But tell that to the hundreds of day trippers currently fleeing a heatwave for waters just 15 minutes from the southern Vermont gateway exits of Interstate 91.
“We’re just visiting,” said one maskless woman in a pack of seven Northeast motorcyclists, not understanding Green Mountain State guidelines currently restrict travel from counties like hers with more than 400 active cases of coronavirus per million residents.
A Sunday count of more than 100 vehicles at the Route 30 intersection of the Rock and West rivers found only two dozen were from Vermont, while 40 were from Massachusetts (many with stickers identifying them from high-caseload Boston and suburbs), 20 from Connecticut, 15 from New Hampshire, 10 from New York (one with the words “BMW of Manhattan,” another problem area), five from New Jersey, two from Rhode Island and one each from Florida, Missouri and North Carolina.
“I feel Vermont is safer than other places,” said one Connecticut woman, summing up the comments of others interviewed from restricted regions. “It’s an easy way to go on vacation but still be in your own zone.”
Most visitors weren’t wearing masks nor aware of state travel standards that allow some but not all quarantine-free travel. Others mistakenly assumed the rules don’t apply to those not staying overnight.
Gov. Phil Scott, speaking Monday at a media briefing, acknowledged many aren’t seeking out the fine print after seeing road signs flashing alerts.
“It seems like all states have some sort of quarantine requirement that people just aren’t aware of,” he said. “It’s difficult to get the message out.”
Instead, many visitors are focusing on more welcoming headlines — such as this month’s Washington Post story “Vermont borders states with major covid-19 outbreaks, but you won’t find that here.”
[Related: How Vermont is opening up to the Northeast, county by county]
Unreported in that article: Some 10 miles south in Brattleboro, a team of Vermont Health Department workers spent the weekend testing locals in contact with two adults and four children diagnosed with the coronavirus in an unidentified Windham County residential community.
“Though the sun is shining, the weather is hot, it’s summer vacation season,” state Health Commissioner Mark Levine said Monday, “the novel coronavirus has failed to take notice of any of that. It is here, and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.”
The Rock River swimming holes, just a few of several drawing crowds along Route 30, are managed by a nonprofit preservation organization whose website features a series of public warnings.
“Please do not come to Rock River at this time if you live in a county with higher Covid-19 cases,” the latest begins. “This includes Connecticut, nearly all of Massachusetts, southern seacoast of New Hampshire and all of southern New York state.”
Rock River caretakers have Covid-19 safety concerns not only for visitors but also for the local volunteer emergency medical service that must respond to first aid calls. (Overseers also are dealing with newcomers who don’t understand that only certain designated areas are clothing-optional.)
“We encourage all river users in the importance of following guidelines,” the nonprofit notes on its website.
State officials, hearing reports of noncompliance along other shorelines, concur.
“We can’t lose track of the fact that the virus hasn’t gone anywhere,” Levine said. “We need to continue to be vigilant, cautious and protective.”
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