State suspends travel quarantine for vaccinated people; hospitality sector, travelers, applause

Since November, anyone traveling to or from Vermont has been subject to a strict state-imposed quarantine. Travelers should isolate themselves for two weeks when entering or preparing to leave the state, or for a week if they receive a negative Covid-19 test result.

These rules are changing for people who received the Covid-19 vaccine. Starting on Tuesday, travelers who have been vaccinated can enter or leave freely without isolation.

“I want to be very clear: we will do this carefully and methodically, as we did during the pandemic,” Governor Phil Scott said at his semi-annual news conference last Friday, when the state announced the change. “I’m asking for your patience while we work this out.”

The rule change applies to people who received both doses of the vaccine and the second vaccine at least 14 days earlier, Lindsay Kurrle, secretary of the Community Development and Commerce Agency, said in a letter to hotel owners in Vermont last week . In the coming months, the state hopes to loosen its rules for large meetings as well.

For planning purposes, Kurrle said, Vermonters can expect that in late spring or early summer Vermont will return to the rules that were established last August – when events for up to 75 indoors and 150 outdoors were allowed.

While the state cannot guarantee this schedule, this is the agency’s best guess at the moment, Kurrle told VTDigger.

The shift in travel restrictions offers a glimpse of hope for travelers and businesses in the Vermont hospitality industry, who have been struggling under one of the most rigid sets of pandemic travel guidelines in the country. Hotel owners are beginning to imagine a summer in which vaccinated guests can reschedule postponed events, such as weddings, after the state’s cautious approach has left some event planners frustrated.

Removing the quarantine requirement for vaccinated travelers is a “step in the right direction” for hotels in the state, said Darren Drevik, board member of the Vermont Lodging Association and innkeeper at the Phineas Swann Inn and Spa in Montgomery.

“I was delighted to hear the governor say that the rules have changed and that those who received their second vaccine, and waited a few weeks after that, were eligible to come and spend their dollars here,” said Drevik.

Drevik recalled having to tell an out-of-state health professional – who called his inn last month to book a room that same weekend and had already received the second dose of the vaccine – that they could not visit him . At that time, state rules still required that the worker quarantine before traveling, with a vaccine or without a vaccine.

Drevik said he is happy that he does not have to reject people like that.

“Needless to say, it was very difficult for me to try to explain this to them other than saying, ‘Hey, it’s the rules,'” said Drevik. “Now this [the quarantine for vaccinated travelers] disappeared, it becomes much easier. “

Wrinkles to navigate

There are still wrinkles to be worked on. For example, the state does not have a mechanism for tracking whether people entering or leaving Vermont without quarantine received both vaccines and waited to travel at least two weeks after the second injection.

The success of the quarantine guidelines will continue to depend on an honor system, as has been the case at ski resorts and other refuge destinations since the quarantine was implemented.

“If someone intentionally lies about it, it is really difficult to prove that they were not quarantined before arriving. We had to put a lot of faith and trust in people, ”said Kurrle.

Scott emphasized at his news conference on Tuesday that resolving these details will require patience, and asked all travelers who are fully vaccinated to carry their vaccination card with them. A vaccination card is an easy way for travelers to show the owner of a hotel or restaurant that they received the vaccines, said Kurrle.

Drevik is also concerned with policing vaccinated guests who can avoid security measures because of a false sense of security.

“We are going to have to continue to ask guests to wear masks and distance themselves socially, and they will probably think, ‘Why do I need to?’ And the answer is, one, because the governor and Dr. Levine say so, ”said Drevik. “But also because we can’t sit here and be the traffic cop to say, OK, this is the guy who said he had a chance, and this is the person who didn’t have a chance.”

These are difficult questions that companies and people in general will have to navigate in the foreseeable future, said Kurrle, considering that the vaccine “is not even offered” to a large part of the population at this time.

“I think we all imagine that we don’t intend to reach zero cases before we start to allow people to move more freely and we need to be aware of the policies that we implement now, that make sense as we continue to open up,” said Kurrle.

Unvaccinated people in families where some members have been vaccinated must still be quarantined before traveling, Kurrle said. For example, children whose parents received the vaccine but did not receive it must still be quarantined under the new rules.

Possible travelers adjust

Following the quarantine protocol has generated frustration and hope for families looking to travel to work and meet with loved ones.

Shauna Hill of Burlington, a single mother and manager of the Planned Parenthood behavioral health program, planned to travel extensively to other parts of New England to work this year. Now that she has received two doses of the vaccine, she said she would feel safe moving freely between states this spring, without being quarantined. But she is still reluctant to do so in the face of the possibility of exposing people to the virus through contact with her children, who regularly interact with other children while attending on-site schools.

“Until the vaccine is made available to the general population, I would like to receive more guidance from the state” for parents with young children trying to navigate the new rules, said Hill.

For Greg Pask of Middlebury, who said that his 3-year-old son hardly remembers the pre-pandemic time spent with Pask’s parents, suspending the travel quarantine for vaccinated people made a reunion between his children and parents a more convenient possibility. Her parents live in New Jersey and recently received a second dose of the vaccine.

Pask said he and his family may still be concerned about catching the virus if their parents come, as it is not clear whether vaccines completely eliminate the possibility of transmission of Covid-19. But travel planning just got easier, as they won’t have to worry about quarantine logistics when entering Vermont.

“It would be great to give my parents a hug and have them read to my children with a real, live book in front of them would be great,” he said.

Tourist promotion?

Drevik said he and other hotel owners are “extremely grateful” for the first steps to make traveling to Vermont easier with the vaccine launch. But he would like the state to invest in advertising tourism as vaccines become more available. Saving the state’s travel industry may well depend on it, he said.

“A year ago, we closed Vermont for three months. Well, there are a lot of people who still think we’re closed, ”he said. “If the state wants to rescue a large part of its tourism industry, it will have to spend some money [on advertising] and let people in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine and New Hampshire know that Vermont is open, it’s safe.

“People should know that if you did the right things, we want you here,” said Drevik.

In total, about 91,000 Vermonters – just over 14% of the state’s population – have been vaccinated so far, according to a presentation at Scott’s press conference on Tuesday. Starting next Monday, anyone aged 65 and over will be eligible to receive the vaccine.

Along with the lifting of the mandatory quarantine for vaccinated people, Scott’s office announced on Tuesday that people who are two weeks away from their second dose of the vaccine can join two family gatherings – the first loosening of collection restrictions since the holidays.