These tips do not constitute medical advice. Always consult with your doctor for your specific medical needs before undertaking travel during the pandemic.
The basics apply for prevention in all situations! 6 ft.+ Distancing – Wear a Mask even if you are vaccinated!! – No hugging or shaking hands – Increase fresh air.
Do not travel if you don’t have to.
Stay 6’ apart from others in any lines.
The virus lingers in the air for at least 3 hours, and on surfaces for up to 7 days. So an empty room or clean looking surface does not assure you that you will not get exposed. Increasing fresh air in a travel vehicle helps dilute any virus in the air. Airplanes have very good exchange rates, but this decreases when they use chemicals for deicing the plane in the winter. 6’ distancing is hard to maintain and airlines are no longer skipping seats between passengers.
Wear a mask or two masks. Sometimes doubling up on a cloth and surgical will increase the filter effect. Bend metal nose clip securely over your nose., but make sure you can breathe so you don’t have to keep taking your mask down for air. Every time you touch your mask, you risk introducing virus to your face. Talking and singing increase virus spread, so minimize this while traveling.
Most Effective mask = Medical N95 > authentic KN95 > (better than) surgical mask > cloth mask > single ply paper mask = Least Effective mask.
Don’t touch your face, pick your teeth or nose, or rub your eyes.
Wash your hands frequently for 20 seconds each time. Wearing gloves is not necessary, and may actually increase touching and forgetting to be careful. If you do wear gloves do not touch our face, and wash your hands as soon as you take the gloves off.
Carry one or two 3 oz. bottles of hand sanitizer. Use if you can’t wash your hands frequently. The 60% ethyl alcohol based sanitizer is proven effective. Not all sanitizers contain this, and therefore may not be effective.
Cover your head with a cap or scarf. Wash your hair when you get to your destination if possible. Consider brushing hair well, or use a sleep cap if you can’t wash your hair to avoid transmitting virus to your pillow at night.
When flying, consider all surfaces in the airport and plane contaminated, including bathrooms and food courts, waiting area chairs. If you can stand long, consider standing while waiting.
When flying, do pay extra for a window seat (and extra leg room). There is less exposure to people walking up and down the aisles if you are away from the center. But make sure to go to rest room before boarding, so that you don’t have to get up and go down the aisle for any reason. Shorter flights are safer, as less time is spent in the enclosed area. Use sanitizer to clean chair arms surface, and tray tables on the plane (trains, too). If you can afford first class, do so, but don’t board first, wait until the last call. If the person next to you is sick or sneezing a lot, ask the stewardess to change your seat if there are any open.
On arrival at your destination (or back home), wipe down luggage and bags. Take a shower, and wash your hair. Put any clothes that you wore during travel in a plastic bag to wash when you get back home.
If staying in a hotel, wipe down the surfaces, lamp and light switches, in the bedroom, as these may not be disinfected as well as the bathroom. Also, consider packing your own linen pillowcase, along with a pillow cover/allergy protector that serves as an additional barrier against germs.
Check with your own doctor about the safety of boosting your immune system with high dose Vitamin C, D, moderate doses of Zinc, and possibly Quercetin.
