Chicago removed California from its COVID-19 travel advisory list on Tuesday, just a few days after the state became the first to drop its "high transmission" status.
In addition to California, Puerto Rico was also removed from Chicago's travel advisory list.
"California and Puerto Rico were taken off the Travel Advisory this week, as their daily COVID case rates have been below 15 per 100,000 residents for two consecutive weeks," the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) wrote in an update. "States are removed from the Travel Advisory when they maintain a COVID case rate below 15 per 100,000 residents in two consecutive weeks."
Last week, Chicago removed Connecticut and the District of Columbia from its travel advisory list, as they had below 15 cases per 100,000 residents. However, both were placed back on the city's list this week.
"The states on the Travel Advisory might change from week to week, but one thing that does not change is the fact that if you want to travel freely without needing to get tested or self-quarantine for a week, get vaccinated," CDPH Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said in a press release sent to Newsweek. "Being fully-vaccinated when you travel is like having a TSA pre-check – it's not a free pass, and you still need to be careful and adhere to all the safety guidelines to keep yourself and others well, but it certainly makes everything easier and you'll have less to worry about."
The travel advisory stated that any unvaccinated individual arriving in Chicago from a state on the list should "get tested with a viral test 3-5 days after travel AND stay home and self-quarantine for a full 7 days."
Less than one week ago, California became the first state in the U.S. to fall below the "high" transmission of the novel coronavirus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
On September 15, a map published by the CDC showed California as the only state having "substantial" community spread of COVID-19. The CDC map designated 49 other states with the color red as they had "high" transmission.
According to the CDC, "high" community transmission of COVID-19 is designated when a state is averaging 100 or more new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the last seven days. The CDC designated "substantial" transmission for states that have an average case rate of 50 to 99.99 new cases per 100,000 people also in the past seven days.
Puerto Rico is also identified as an area with "substantial" community transmission of the novel virus.
Despite California's drop to "substantial" transmission status, the CDC map shows that the U.S. as a whole currently has "high" transmission of COVID-19. The U.S. currently has a seven-day average of around 250 new cases per 100,000 residents, according to the CDC.
Updated September 21, 2021, 5:54 p.m. ET to include a press release from the Chicago Department of Public Health.
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