If you’ve traveled during the pandemic but haven’t completed the required Massachusetts State Notification Form, you are not alone.

Records verified by NBC10 investigators suggest that thousands of people who have visited or returned to Massachusetts in the past seven months have likely skipped the submission of a travel form that includes vehicle and air travel during this one Time based.

Submitting the electronic form has previously been mandatory for anyone from a state with higher COVID-19 transmission rates.

After implementing the system last summer, Massachusetts collected more than 670,000 electronic forms, according to a summary for NBC10.

The top five international travel origins were Canada, India, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic, while most domestic travelers came from Florida, California, New York, Texas, and Pennsylvania.

But it’s likely a lot more people have entered the Bay State based on other transportation data from the same time period.

According to federal records, around 2.5 million arriving passengers landed at Logan Airport during those months. And while not all of them were there – many drove through Boston en route to other locations – many more arrived by car. AAA estimated last year that 1.4 million Massachusetts drivers would use the vehicle for the vacation route from December 23, 2020 to January 3, 2021 alone.

At that point, travelers from dozens of states were required to fill out the forms and quarantine them for 14 days or receive a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival in Massachusetts. Those who violated the order risked a fine of $ 500 per day.

However, the Bay State authorities told NBC10 that they did not impose a single fine, which explains the low compliance, said Dr. Davidson Hamer, an infectious disease specialist at Boston Medical Center and the Boston University School of Public Health.

“If people know this is not being rigorously enforced, they may be less likely to worry about it,” Hamer said.

The NBC10 Boston Investigators take a closer look at a remote working arrangement for a public health director.

The NBC10 investigators found that health officials took a similar enforcement approach for the nationwide mask mandate in November.

The travel order was in effect from August 2020 to March 2021 when it was replaced with a milder travel advisory.

Families going on vacation this April won’t have to follow the same strict quarantine and testing rules upon their return to Massachusetts. Unvaccinated travelers will still be asked to quarantine for 10 days or get a negative test on their return.

“I think the system as it was designed is unfortunately not very efficient,” said Hamer. “Some countries call people once a day to make sure they are in quarantine and to see how they are doing. That costs a lot of resources. “

We asked the state COVID command center about the overall effectiveness of the travel order and received no response.

Vermont and New Hampshire also announced that they had not issued fines for failing to fill out their travel forms. Officials in Maine, Rhode Island and Connecticut did not respond to requests for information.

Connecticut health officials previously announced that they fined seven residents $ 1,000 each for failing to notify health officials of their travels to other countries in the country.

Sigalle Reiss, director of public health at Norwood, said it was a roller coaster ride trying to enforce safety protocols that are constantly evolving during the pandemic.

Although compliance wasn’t perfect, travel order still had a positive impact as travelers had to rethink their plans, said Reiss, who also serves as president of the Massachusetts Health Officers Association.

“It still changes behavior and encourages people to do the right thing and control the virus,” she said.

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