Traveling has become increasingly complicated as the coronavirus continues to spread. Here are tips for those planning to travel again.
The experts say that it is up to the individual. There is a need to make an individual decision at this point, weighing the risks and benefits.
Is it safe to go traveling?
The travelers should consult with a health care provider before making a decision. Avoid all non-essential travel to destinations with Level 3 travel notices.
With talk about airport opening during a few places, it looks like we may soon be ready to travel again, but with many precautions in this situation. In a post-COVID-19 scene, it is crucial to stay informed and take adequate measures to keep safe and avoid catching the virus.
Therefore, the risk of infection on an airplane comes mainly from direct contact with infected persons and gets in touch with surfaces that an infected person has been in touch with. There are, thus, some belongings you must confine mind for your next aviation experience.
Make a list
There are several items that you should carry with you while traveling. Your list should include a hand sanitizer (with quite 60% alcohol content), disinfectant wipes, tissues, and a mask. These things can help you maintain a certain hygiene level and stop getting in touch with disease-causing droplets.
Be careful of what you touch
You would have been informed that the novel coronavirus has been spreading at an accelerated rate. It’s essential to be mindful when using devices or touching surfaces that others have used, like ATMs, check-in machines, escalators, etc.
Use a generous amount of sanitizer whenever you touch any of those surfaces and take care not to touch your face.
Similarly, be mindful of your high-touch items, like phones and wallets. Keep them during a bag instead of exposed in bins during security checks.
Your phone is consistently being handled without paying much attention to what you touched before it. So wiping it down with disinfectant a few times each day is advisable.
Minimize human contact
Wherever possible, attempt to believe technology and automation. Get your boarding card from the machine and sanitize your hands afterward.
In terms of food and shops within the airport, try not to touch common surfaces, maintain the recommended six-foot distance from the staff, and check out to pay using contactless options.
Get a window seat
While choosing your seat on a plane might not be in your hands immediately after travel is resumed, once you can, always choose the window.
A study by researchers at Emory University and Georgia Tech found that sitting in a window seat and remain seated for the course of the flight is the best way to avoid germs from fellow passengers.
Infected passengers will presumably not infect people sitting farther than two seats beside them or two rows ahead or behind. The transmission mechanism risk is often eliminated by keeping hands clean and avoiding contact with eyes, nose, and mouth.
Don’t drink water inside the plane
As per the US Environmental Protection Agency, the water from airplane water tanks isn’t always clean, so drinking tea or coffee, which is typically made up of this water and not drinking water, won’t be a fair idea.
Stay home if you’re sick
This is the most critical point. More often than not, we specialize in protecting ourselves from the disease but don’t believe in preventing ourselves from spreading it.
The CDC recommends waiting for 24 hours after a fever has completely abated before stepping out.
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