ATTLEBORO, Mass. — For those living near the Rhode Island border who shop regularly in the Ocean State, there has been a lot of confusion surrounding Gov. Charlie Baker’s new travel order.
On Friday, at a news conference, Baker was asked if grocery shopping cross the border was permitted, as well as dining.
“There were a pretty clear set of metrics around what put somebody onto the travel ban list or off the travel ban list,” Baker said. “Rhode Island’s numbers, basically, went above the threshold.”
He said grocery shopping would be permitted but the state’s website does not spell out a lot of basic reasons people may choose to visit Rhode Island, and his office did not respond to questions late Friday afternoon about if the website would be updated to explain other scenarios.
Under the travel order that went into effect Aug. 1 but only included Rhode Island as of Friday, states are considered high-risk and subject to the travel order if they have average daily cases per 100,000 below 6 and positive test rate below 5 percent, both measured as seven day rolling average.
Rhode Island’s COVID-19 infections have been on the rise over the past two weeks with a positivity percentage of nearly six percent according to covidexitstrategy.org, the website Massachusetts cites on its website.
Those traveling to Rhode Island and returning to Massachusetts are subject to a mandatory 14-day quarantine unless they are passing through the state to fly elsewhere, or connect to a bus or train, are attending school, commuting to work or are military personnel or if they have received a negative result to a COVID-19 test that was based on a sample taken within three days of arriving in Massachusetts.
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