Baker-Polito Administration Issues New Travel Order Effective Aug. 1
BOSTON — Gov. Charlie Baker announced that, effective Saturday, Aug. 1, all travelers entering the Commonwealth, including both out-of-state residents and Massachusetts residents returning home, will be required to comply with a new travel order. The full order and other information is available at www.mass.gov/matraveler.
Starting Aug. 1, all visitors and Massachusetts residents returning home, including students returning to campuses for the fall semester, must fill out a Massachusetts Travel Form and quarantine for 14 days unless they are coming from a COVID-19 lower-risk state or they can produce a negative COVID-19 test result administered no more than 72 hours prior to arriving in Massachusetts, or they are included in one of the other, limited exemptions.
Individuals who get a test must remain in quarantine until they receive their negative test results. Failure to comply may result in a $500 fine per day.
Travelers are exempt from this requirement if they are coming from a state that has been designated by the Department of Public Health as a lower-risk COVID-19 state or fall into another narrow exemption category. Based on current public-health data, those lower-risk states currently include New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Hawaii.
Traveler exemptions include people passing through the state, people commuting across state lines for work, people traveling to Massachusetts for medical treatment, people complying with military orders, or people traveling to work in federally designated critical infrastructure sectors (essential services).
Prior to travel, people should visit www.mass.gov/matraveler to fill out the Massachusetts Travel For or text ‘MATraveler’ to 888-777.
The list of lower-risk states is subject to change based on public-health data, and states may be added or taken off the list at any time.