The chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut issued an order barring entry of individuals who visited China, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Iran, New York's New Rochelle community, and any other location that has been under coronavirus-related quarantine in the past 14 days.

Judge Stefan Underhill's order takes effect immediately, and covers Connecticut's three federal courthouses in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven.

The order comes in response to worldwide precautions against COVID-19, or coronavirus.

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Click here to read the full order

The five countries listed in Underhill's order have reported mounting coronavirus infections in recent weeks. And the Westchester County community of New Rochelle, New York, has seen about 120 cases, according to news reports.

Underhill said Thursday that enforcement of the order "is likely to be uneven." He said security officers will ask visitors if they've traveled to any of the locations cited in the order.

"Everyone should be encouraged to be observant," the chief judge said. "If you observe someone with apparent symptoms, you should report it, so that the person can be queried as to whether they were in any of the places listed on the order, and whether they need to be tested."

Underhill continued: "This is a commonsense approach to limit exposure to the extent we are able to. We want the courts to be open and functioning. We don't want the courts to be the environment for spreading the virus."

Underhill said the order was modeled after similar ones in the Southern District of New York, which covers New York City, and in the Western District of Washington state, which includes Seattle. CNN reports Washington state has had the highest number of infections in the United States.

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