Steam & Excursion > New Mexico adds Colorado to list of high-Covid state restrictions

The Albuquerque Journal reports this morning that Colorado has been added to the list of high risk states by the NM Health Department. This means that NM residents who travel to Colorado for recreational reasons must self-quarantine for 14 days upon return. Arizona, Texas and Utah are already on the list but Colorado was exempt due to low rates of the virus. That has changed according to state officials. For example, NM residents who travel to Durango to ride the Durango and Silverton or to Antonito to ride the Cumbres and Toltec from that starting point must self-isolate at home upon returning. The Cumbres and Toltec just started coach-only service from Chama to Osier and return this past monday.

Excerpted:
SANTA FE – New Mexico has added three states to its list of “high-risk” destinations that fall under a 14-day travel quarantine order, even as its own COVID-19 case count continued a recent uptick.Colorado was one of the states moved to high risk Wednesday by New Mexico officials – along with Oregon and Rhode Island – due to its recent virus spread rate.    New Mexico’s northern neighbor had been among a list of low-risk states that were exempted from the mandatory travel quarantine under a revised order issued this month by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. New Mexico has one of the nation’s strictest travel quarantines, even in its revised form.
https://www.abqjournal.com/1499498/nm-covid-19-case-growth-continues-on-recent-upswing.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/20 12:54 by Cumbresfan.

Another article with the list of state restrictions:

As of Sept. 23, the list of high-risk states includes the following: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
https://www.myhighplains.com/news/new-mexico/gov-updates-new-mexico-travel-order-lists-states-requiring-quarantine/

Next to the oil and natural gas industry, that provides 39% of state revenue and which Santa Fe environmentalists want to kill in the name of climate change, tourism is the number two contributor to state revenue. Recreational visitors to NM from that list must also self-quarantine at their hotel or place of residence except for medical treatment. The state is already among the highest in the country for the poverty rate and lowest for average income so the double whammy (low oil prices and tourism prohibition) makes state income from jobs in those occupations even more diminished.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/20 13:06 by Cumbresfan.

And this will be enforced how?  How would anyone in New Mexico even know that a resident went to Durango and back? Are there going to be border checks?  I never thought I would live to see the day that our country is turned into East Germany. States need to supoprt the hard hit travel industry. Not continue to make it harder to do business. 

While your post didn't solict comments but presented information, some will feel compelled to put in their two cents.  So here's my two cents:  I was in Chama this past week to shoot video of the first train from Antonito to Chama and the first train from Chama to Osier.  What I observed were merchants going everything they can to prevent COVID-19 from infecting their customers (with one exception at the Expresso place where the woman putting my order together had her mask below her nose).  What I also observed were a lot of people from out of state, mainly driving bit pickup trucks with white license plates ignoring the social distancing rules and mask rules.  I would like to go back this next week to shoot the trains against the backdrop of changing colors but I probably won't because my wife is high risk.  People think they have the right to ignore our rules which have put New Mexico as one of the states doing the best with the pandemic.  But people don't have the right to violate my rights by ignoring those rules.  
Obviously the 14 day quarentine is unenforceable but it will stop businesses and tourist attractions from offering their services to out of state visitors, just as it did with the C&TSRR all summer.  I wouldn't be surprised if they closed it for the rest of the season, which would be a terrible loss to Chama.  If science hadn't been politicized this situation would have been contained this spring, just as it was in other countries.  Instead, we suffer economic hardship in areas that are most vulnerable like Rio Arriba County because people won't do the one simple thing like wear a mask.  Would you go to surgery if your surgeon decided it bothered his nose and decided that his right to breath all over you trumped your right to an uncomplicated surgery?

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> I never thought I would live to see the day that our country is turned into East Germany.


I never thought I'd see the day that a public health problem was again turned into a political divide and conquer civil war.  Didn't we learn from HIV not to be that stupid again?

Brian

Yes but they just several hundred thousand dollars to study and plan for the new line between Gallup and Farmington.
Money should go a long way now since no consultants are going to put up with the new plans.

Out 

CU Boulder generated the biggest spike in Colo with a few other campuses  having some cases

choodude Wrote:
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> andersonb109 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > I never thought I would live to see the day that
> our country is turned into East Germany.
>
>
> I never thought I'd see the day that a public
> health problem was again turned into a political
> divide and conquer civil war.  Didn't we learn
> from HIV not to be that stupid again?
>
> Brian

I guess stupidity, like the virus, is contagious

Posted from Android

needles_sub Wrote:
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> choodude Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > andersonb109 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> >
> > > I never thought I would live to see the day
> that
> > our country is turned into East Germany.
> >
> >
> > I never thought I'd see the day that a public
> > health problem was again turned into a
> political
> > divide and conquer civil war.  Didn't we learn
> > from HIV not to be that stupid again?
> >
> > Brian
>
> I guess stupidity, like the virus, is contagious
>

I'm sorry to see politics infect the Steam Board and from the same actors as the Passenger.  If I want to read right wing screeds about masks and East Germany I can go to Breitbart; can we just cool it and do railroad stuff here?
 

WP-M2051 Wrote:
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> needles_sub Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > choodude Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > andersonb109 Wrote:
> > >
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> >
> > > -----
> > >
> > > > I never thought I would live to see the day
> > that
> > > our country is turned into East Germany.
> > >
> > >
> > > I never thought I'd see the day that a public
> > > health problem was again turned into a
> > political
> > > divide and conquer civil war.  Didn't we
> learn
> > > from HIV not to be that stupid again?
> > >
> > > Brian
> >
> > I guess stupidity, like the virus, is
> contagious
> >
>
> I'm sorry to see politics infect the Steam Board
> and from the same actors as the Passenger.  If I
> want to read right wing screeds about masks and
> East Germany I can go to Breitbart; can we just
> cool it and do railroad stuff here?
>  Thank you!  Minds won't be changed here, as this is a platform for TRAINS.

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And this will be enforced how?  How would anyone
> in New Mexico even know that a resident went to
> Durango and back? Are there going to be border
> checks?  I never thought I would live to see the
> day that our country is turned into East Germany.
> States need to supoprt the hard hit travel
> industry. Not continue to make it harder to do
> business. 

Oh sure! Life takes a back seat because it's the money uber alles...............

Hate to be that right wing conservative that so many of you seem to dislike but it takes money to make it through the day
and the economy collapses (including the government) without work. There has to be a medium point here, we all can't
just sit home until the virus goes away and you can't (New Mexico) stick your head in the sand thinking everything will be
fine.

Out 

NM gov. is going overboard on this. 

Whenever I comment the thread gets deleted but I will try.  If you read the fine print I believe New Mexico is like 5 per 100,000 what ever that means exactly while New York is 10 and Chicago is 15.  So much for the science?  Most of the country is on the list.  What defines high risk, higher than them?

1)  It is interesting that states pick a number that is somewhat above their own.  What happens if they go over their own guideline
2)  My wife worked at Yellowstone this summer and not one NPS employee got infected, 1 million visitors and no disaster nearby.
3) As noted a lot of the spike is related to colleges.  Don't think a lot those students are going back and forth to NM.
4) Personal feeling, I think there is more than simply concern for human life here.  When you listen to the news conferences there is a certain amount of self congratulations.

As far as travelling there, I am going west, the heck with New Mexico.  I don't believe these kind of rules are valid science or good public policy.

We are the United States and freedom of travel should be protected.

Bob