As the world begins to open up, many of us are preparing to travel abroad again, planning vacations and visits to family.
Air travel will put you in close contact with other people, as well as commonly touched surfaces, both in the airport and on the flight. After the last sixteen months, many people feel nervous about traveling again.
If you’ve already been vaccinated, you will have more protection against Covid-19, which is one of many good reasons you can get your vaccine. You can get vaccinated at vaccine centers or at your usual doctors if they have suitable vaccine storage. However, you will still need to take some precautions. If you haven’t been vaccinated yet, you will need to take extra precautions or consider waiting to travel. If you’re traveling this summer, here’s how you can make it safer.
Make Safe Choices When Booking Your Flight
You can lower the risk of flying as soon as you book your flight. For example, stick to short flights for now and avoid trips involving layovers.
Check the website of the airline you’ll be flying with to see what safety measures they have in place. Find out a few important details, including:
- If you will need to wear a mask on board
- How social distancing will be maintained
- Whether you can check-in online or contact-free
- What the airline’s cleaning protocols are
Wear Your Mask
Most airlines still require passengers to wear a mask both in the airport and on the aircraft, unless they’re eating or drinking.
Wearing your mask is important, as it not only gives you some protection from the risk of Covid-19 but also prevents you from spreading the virus to others if you have it and don’t know you do. This is even more important if you haven’t been vaccinated.
You might have Covid-19 and not realize it, but someone else on your flight could be vulnerable and at a high risk of becoming very ill or experiencing complications if they catch Covid.
Carry Hand Sanitizer And Avoid Touching Your Face
Airports and planes are both full of surfaces that get touched a lot by a lot of people. Airlines are trying to reduce the number of things that their customers need to touch, by adding in things like contactless or online check-in. Despite their best efforts though, you will still need to touch things like door handles, luggage bins, and escalator banisters.
Take hand hygiene seriously. This is even more important if you’re having to touch surfaces that have been touched by other people. To help you stay healthy, it’s a good idea to carry hand sanitizer with you. Make sure the one you is at least 60% alcohol, and use it after touching any surfaces touched by others.
Try to avoid touching your face as much as you can. This can be tough, but it does make a difference. You can’t catch coronavirus via your skin, but you can catch it from viral particles on your hands if you touch your mouth, nose, or eyelids.
