DC requires COVID-19 testing for travelers, ends 14-day quarantine requirement

On Monday, Nov. 9, the District ends its previous 14-day quarantine requirement for visitors traveling from states with high rates of COVID-19 and implements a new COVID-19 testing requirement.

Visitors to the District coming from high-risk states are being asked to have a negative COVID-19 with 72 hours of traveling, and get tested again within 3-5 days of arrival if they remain in the city.

Exemptions to the new testing requirement include:

  • Visitors from Maryland and Virginia
  • People coming to DC for essential work (a first test is still required, but these workers may carry out their duties prior to receiving the results of their second test in the district as long as they do not have symptoms or were not a close contact of a positive case within the last 14 days) 
  • Visitors coming to DC for less than 24 hours
  • People traveling to D.C. for a family emergency or funeral (a negative test is not required if obtaining one would be impractical, but they must restrict their activities to those related to their emergency)

DC residents returning to the District after traveling to any place other than Maryland, Virginia or a low-risk state or country are being asked to: 

  • Limit daily activities and self-monitor for 14 days upon their return, or
  • Limit daily activities until they get tested for COVID-19 and return a negative result
Troy Petenbrink

Troy, also known as The Gay Traveler, is a well known travel and food writer. His has been a regular contributor to a variety of outlets including National Geographic, Travel Channel, DCRefined, CBS Local, and Metro Weekly. He also appears on local Washington news outlets as a travel expert.

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.