Boraxo

As of December 14, for those travelling to Pitkin County, CO (including Aspen), you must quarantine for 10 days unless you can produce evidence of a negative test taken within 72 hours prior to arrival. I wonder if other CO counties will follow?

sdsearch

That was done by counties themselves before anything determined by the state.

The state itself just did the same for a whole bunch of counties in Southern California and beyond (it includes Sierra counties like Inyo but not the main Central Valley). The state has recently divided counties into 5 regions, and is shutting down any region in which ICU bed availability is below 15%.

Regarding hotels: Reports back in the spring were sporadic (in some hotel forums on FT), but a few hotels were asking for documentation proving that the guest was an "essential" worker. The very few people who reported the hotel demanding that, those people had such letters on them, so they didn't know how the hotel would have handled someone not having such letters. I didn't see any report back then of someone being asked for such documentation by the hotel and not being able to provide it. (But then, none of the reports I saw were from right at the start of the spring shutdowns; they were well into them, by which time everyone know which places were shut down and most people were avoiding hotel stays in such places.)

By the way, last spring and this winter are different in on key way in California: Spring was not fire season, this winter so far is. So there are some hotels which might need to accommodate fire evacuees; I do hope they're able to accommodate them under these rules if need be. Technically, that may already be in what's written, since it allows hotels to still be used to house the homeless (in the detailed state description of what hotels can do), and technically I guess that evacuees are "temporarily homeless" .

Bretmd

The CA hotel restrictions regarding leisure travel are specifically targeting out of state residents. So, In state residents can check in to a hotel for leisure purposes. An out of state traveler can only check into a hotel for leisure purposes if it is for the entire duration of the quarantine period, the length of which hasn’t been defined.

https://calodging.com/sites/default/...F-12-05-20.pdf

TerryK

I would love to hear from actual experience of FTers who travel to SoCal in the next few days.

SamirD

I flew out of SFO last week and had to affirm at online check-in 3 things, one of which was that I was covid free. I had actually recently taken a test and took my results with me, but none of this was asked for or even mentioned at any point in time in my travels.

People at the airports are far too laxed for the 8% infection rate for the county--that's 1 in 12 people, and people aren't taking it seriously. More must die first apparently...

sdsearch

No. Perhaps that website wasn't updated yet when you posted it? It says it was revised December 9. It now says;

Non-Essential Travel:
When ANY region is under the Regional Stay-At-Home Order:
In-State Travelers: Allowed, except in region(s) under Regional Stay-At-Home Order.
Out-of-State Travelers: Not allowed, unless for the entire quarantine period.*
For a SPECIFIC region under the Regional Stay-At-Home Order: Non-essential travelers are not allowed.

And the thing you need to understand is that currently all of Central Valley and the Bay Area and everything south of that are under a Regional Stay-At-Home Order. The extended Bay Area is under it's own (the state hasn't triggered its own order for them yet, the local counties did it proactively as a group), while the Central Valley and all points south, east, and southwest of that are in state Regional Stay-at-Home Orders.

So non-essential travelers are not allowed in the population bulk of the state because the population bulk of the state is under Regional Stay-at-Home Orders.

Now, in the far north, around Shasta and Arcadia and so on, those places aren't in a Regional Stay-at-Home Order (yet?), so right now hotels there can accept leisure guests from elsewhere in the state technically.

Boraxo

Your quotes are accurate but the reality on the ground is different. From what I have personally observed and heard, many hotels are not checking in-state visitors at check-in at least in NorCal. We checked into a Hyatt Place and no comment was made except that they were grateful for my business. Also it does not appear that AirBnB has shut down listings as it did earlier this year during Stay-At-Home part one. So there is a stay-at-home order but I see zero enforcement for in-state residents. I'm not advocating one way or another here (that's another forum) just providing practical info - you can make your own decisions.

Bretmd

You are correct. My comment above was based on Dec 5 guidance which has been updated as you noted.

pallas

Has anyone flown into LAX in the last two weeks? Was last there two weeks ago (essential worker) and flew out of LAX (Inbound was ONT) and I try to note whether they're stopping passengers to fill out the form upon arrival. Didn't see anyone in the departure gate area stopping passengers, but don't know what it's like the closer you get to the exit/baggage claim area. Didn't think I saw anyone was I went through security while departing, but that was two weeks ago.

YYCCL3

I flew into and out of LAX on separate tickets with checked baggage this week. Was informed onboard the inbound flight to fill out the online form (of which most people excepting myself had never heard of before). Was never asked about it on arrival, exit, baggage claim, etc. It's a stupid form, there is no way to prove that you've filled it out if you closed the webpage, did it at home instead of on your phone, etc. Just more theater.

Presguy

I've flown in and out of LAX several times over the past few weeks. At least in terminals 1, 2, 4, and 5 there was no one checking for that form on arrival. There were a few signs up, I believe in T1, near the escalators to baggage claim, but no actual human enforcement.

EDIT: To add - no announcements on the inbound flights about it, either.

pallas

Thanks, folks. I just don't like being tracked and on a database (I have a covid test done every other week for work and am healthy besides sinuses/allergies). It's quite different in the one police state in the country where an online form produces a QR code, and on arrival in most of the airports, there are national guardsmen either checking for the QR code or making you fill out the paper form, right near the gates.

Boraxo

We filed required county forms online before boarding our flight to Aspen. I checked “test results pending” as my test result did not arrive via text until just prior to landing. Upon arrival there was no welcoming committee at the airport and no follow up. YMMV

GUWonder

ASE sounds like ANC this summer with having a requirement in place but not doing much to enforce it on or after arrival. But in the case of Alaska the demand was for a Covid-19 test result.

If you're referring to NY, the reference to it as a "police state" threw me off since it's not like any real ones and is not even making an effort to be a very effective one (if it were even trying to be that). Filling out a health form and then maybe getting some reminder text message about the Covid-19 situation isn't anything worse than than the pre-Covid-19 stuff that has gone on when at US airports, elsewhere inside the US when "near" the US's international borders, or even at times over the decades for some interstate domestic travel. As you're using US commercial flights presumably with a valid ID for yourself: you're always being tracked when doing so, and that is with your booked travels piling into databases. And even using a cheap disposable (no-internet connectivity) phone with a disposable prepaid phone SIM to try to minimize being tracked provides no protection from the surveillance systems aimed at travelers by desire of the federal authorities.

NY area airports have way more of an effort underway to get the contact info for public health purposes and to use it a bit than LAX or SFO does. It's not so bad to get a text message from NYS about the Covid-19 situation even after leaving the state following a transit using the PANYNJ airports. Actually, I sort of appreciated that NY sent out those text messages using the contact info from the public health forms since it showed at least that they were making use of the information provided rather than just making busy work for passengers but not making any use of the info whatsoever. FWIW, at least when submitting those forms even in person at LGA and JFK, there's no TSA ID-checking like process going on or other demand to prove that all the information supplied is what it should be before being able to proceed.

As part of the out-of-state residents being in transit to another jurisdiction to get to home, out-of-state residents have been staying at California hotels for periods shorter than the quarantine period applicable to state residents. Being en route to seek shelter at home is essential, whether it's the tail end of a leisure or work trip. This has come up repeatedly for US citizens returning or otherwise coming from abroad.

Boraxo

California hotels are explicitly prohibited from renting to out of state residents but there is an exception for persons who are in transit staying at an airport hotel.