Dover COVID-19 Updates & Information

Maintaining Emotional Health & Well-being

 Taking care of your emotional health and well-being during this time is important. Decreasing stress can help bolster your immune system and can help keep you and others around you healthy. Please visit the Mass.Gov website for important resources and tips. 

Travel Notification Requirements

• Travel risk and new travel order with mandatory quarantine:  Though states in the northeast have the lowest incidence of COVID, there is substantial risk that travelers from other parts of the country might be unknowingly infected and spread COVID here.  On July 24, 2020, Governor Baker issued a new travel order that requires all visitors and returning residents to complete a “Massachusetts Traveler Form” unless they are coming from a state that has been designated a lower risk COVID-19 state or fall into an exemption category. The new travel order also requires that visitors and returning residents arriving in Massachusetts from any place other than a COVID-19 lower-risk state must quarantine for 14-days unless they can produce a negative COVID-19 test result administered on a sample taken not more than 72-hours prior to arriving in Massachusetts.  Failure to follow the rules for quarantine could result in a fine.  More details are available at mass.gov/matraveler.
  
  
• A CRITICALLY IMPORTANT WAY TO HELP PROTECT OUR COMMUNITY FROM COVID:  QUARANTINE AFTER TRAVEL In many parts of the United States, COVID cases are skyrocketing.  The northeast is the exception, where infection rates are relatively low and stable, as in Massachusetts, or very low and falling, as in several other northeastern states.  There is a serious risk that travelers coming to Massachusetts from areas with high infection rates could be unknowingly infected and spread COVID here after arrival.  As a consequence, most northeastern states, Massachusetts included, are directing travelers from other parts of the country to quarantine themselves for 14 days upon arrival. Travelers to Massachusetts from Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New York, and New Jersey are exempt from the quarantine requirement.  The Board of Health urges Dover residents to comply with the directive in order to prevent the spread of COVID.  For more information regarding domestic and international travel restrictions and recommendations, please visit the state’s travel information page here: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/travel-information-related-to-covid-19
  
  

  If a recent traveler in your home develops any symptom of COVID during quarantine, they should be tested and should contact their primary care provider.  The CDC list of COVID symptoms is at:  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html., and testing sites are available at:   https://www.mass.gov/covid-19-testing.  Please note that many local grocery stores deliver, either directly or through Instacart, and the Dover Council on Aging, at 508-513-5734, is available, no matter your age, to advise about other logistical problems that may arise during the quarantine period

COVID-19 Testing. The Town strongly encourages people who are concerned that they may have symptoms of COVID-19 to arrange to be tested through their primary care providers.  If someone has a COVID swab test (PCR) that is positive, the provider who ordered the test will follow up, and the Dover Public Health nurse will also call to discuss isolation and quarantine in the home, as well as give advice about managing symptoms and, if needed, help arrange for groceries and other supplies. Some people have chosen to have coronavirus antibody blood tests performed.  The role of antibody tests isn’t entirely clear yet, as they may indicate past infection, but they may also indicate active infection.