Today, Governor Ned Lamont joined New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to implement a COVID-19 Travel Advisory.
The advisory goes into effect at 12 AM on Thursday, June 25th.
The governors of Connecticut, New York and New Jersey issued a joint travel advisory that goes into effect at midnight.
Starting Wednesday at 11:59 p.m., people traveling into those states from states with a high spread of COVID-19 will have to quarantine for 14 days.
As of Wednesday, the states included in the advisory were Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas.
"Right now it's going to be voluntary," said Gov. Ned Lamont.
Lamont said travelers would be clearly notified if they fall under the advisory.
"If we find that people are abusing that, we'll look at some stricter enforcement," he said.
Several southern states have been reporting thousands of new cases in a single day.
The travel advisory applies to any person arriving from a state with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents or a state with a 10 percent or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.
Dr. Deidre Gifford, acting commissioner of the Department of Public Health, said the state will update the list of states on a daily basis, depending on COVID-19 case reports. If a state sees infection rates decline, it could be removed from the advisory.
Lamont said he has been having conversations with Gifford about travelers potentially being able to present negative test results instead of the 14 day quarantine.
"It makes sense to me, especially if someone only has like three days to conduct some business up here," Lamont said.
However, a decision on that has yet to be made.
Connecticut, on the other hand, has one of the lowest coronavirus rates in the nation.
“Working together as a region has proven to be immensely successful as our respective states are leading the country when it comes to our response with low infection and positivity rates relative to increased testing capacity,” Lamont said. “We have made difficult decisions throughout this pandemic, but we have proven to make many of the right decisions. This step to inform travelers form states with hot spots to self-isolate is meant to protect our residents and maintain our incredible public health progress.”