Cities go to extremes with quarantine crackdowns: Checkpoints, power shutoffs, steep fines

Outside of private homes, Los Angeles is cracking down hard on businesses potentially in violation of the city’s public health restrictions. A July 23 news release outlined the city’s actions, including shutting down 26 restaurants, a grocery store, a pool and 67 other businesses for health order violations.

In Beverly Hills, not wearing a mask will cost you $100 for the first offense, $200 for the second and $500 for the third. Calabasas will also fine those who are maskless in public

In Costa Mesa, Manhattan Beach, and Santa Monica, first offenses for not wearing a mask will cost $100. It’s $300 in West Hollywood, according to Fox 11, and the highest in Glendale: $400 for a first offense, $1,000 for a second and $2,000 for a third.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner on Monday announced that his city will slap $250 fines on people going maskless in his city. And the entire state of New Mexico is subject to a $100 fine for not wearing a mask

Many places, including Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York City and others now have rules requiring people coming from coronavirus hotspots to self-quarantine for 14 days after their arrival. In Chicago, this is communicated by ubiquitous variable-message road signs above the highway warning travelers that if they are arriving from a place with elevated coronavirus case counts, they are not welcome until they isolate for 14 days.

New York is taking a more direct approach, setting up checkpoints at many of the city’s entry points, using the sheriff’s office to stop travelers and, if they are coming from one of 35 jurisdictions that are in New York’s mandatory quarantine list, having them fill out a “traveler form.”

Washington, D.C., and multiple other jurisdictions have also instituted mandatory quarantines on travelers coming from certain coronavirus hotspots.