Rhode Island removed from Massachusetts' low-risk list, effective Friday

(WJAR) — Starting Friday, Rhode Island will no longer be on Massachusetts' list of lower-risk states.

That means travelers from Rhode Island must fill out a travel form and quarantine for 14 days unless they can provide a negative COVID-19 test result administered up to 72 hours prior to arriving in Massachusetts.

There is an exception in the travel order for students and workers who regularly go to a fixed location.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health said Rhode Island was removed from the lower-risk state list due to increases in Rhode Island’s positive test rate and cases per 100,000.

Earlier in the day, three other states also added Rhode Island required travelers from Rhode Island to self-quarantine because of the uptick in cases and positive test rate.

New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut now require travelers from Rhode Island to quarantine for 14 days.

A state is included on their list when the positive test rate is higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a seven-day average, according to advisories from the three states.

Gov. Charlie Baker was asked about Rhode Island earlier on Tuesday and said a decision was under active discussion and a decision would be forthcoming.

In Massachusetts, travelers from a state that is not considered low risk must fill out a travel form and quarantine for 14 days unless they can produce a negative COVID-19 test result administered up to 72 hours before their arrival.

There is a $500 fine per day for failure to comply with the travel order.

Currently, Massachusetts considers a state to be low risk if the average daily cases per 100,00 are below 6 percent and positive test rate below 5 percent, according to its website.

At the moment, Rhode Island is included along with six other northeastern states and Hawaii. But Rhode Island will no longer be included as of Friday.

“The Rhode Island conversation about their test scores relative to our travel order is under active discussion and we’ll have something to say about that shortly,” said Baker on Tuesday as he toured the headquarters of Boston MedFlight before the official announcement was made.

He added that the travel orders have an exemption for people who regularly commute outside of Massachusetts for work or school at a fixed location.

“An exemption for people who travel across the border for work at a particular place every day, and vice versa,” said Baker.

According to the state’s website, “workers or students who travel to any place that is not their home state for personal or leisure reasons cannot rely on this exemption.”

Baker says the seven-day positive test rate for Massachusetts is about 2 percent.

The governor said the state has seen an uptick in new positive cases and officials are looking into the causes.

On Monday, the Baker administration added Framingham to a list of targeted communities that will receive extra testing after positive test rates were higher than the state average. There is currently 17 communities that are part of the “Stop the Spread” initiative.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Tuesday reported nine additional COVID-19 deaths and 438 new cases.

In total, the Bay State has reported 111,033 confirmed cases and 8,436 deaths.

According to DPH, there are 354 individuals currently hospitalized because of COVID-19, with 56 in the ICU and 29 using ventilators.