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As restrictions loosen across the country and the prospect of travel is tempting, many of us will be planning road trips for the holiday season.
To make sure your trip is memorable at best and not at worst, here are some things you and your fellow travelers can do to reduce the risk of contracting or spreading COVID while traveling.
Before you go
1. Check for any travel restrictions or other COVID-specific restrictions or rules in the areas you will travel to or to, before you leave. These can change quickly and can include restrictions on how far you can travel, how many people per square meter are allowed in public spaces, and whether you need border passes or wear a mask. Each state or territory has its own health department or government COVID website that you can check.
2. Don’t carry COVID with you. If someone in your group has COVID-like symptoms, however mild, it’s important that they get tested and cleared for COVID before you leave. Common symptoms may include fever or chills, body aches, sore throat, cough, runny nose, difficulty breathing, new loss of taste or smell, and vomiting or diarrhea.
3. Prepare masks, disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer. The two most likely ways to catch COVID are by inhaling viral particles that an infected person loses when they cough, sneeze, laugh, talk, or breathe; and ingesting particles by touching contaminated objects and then touching the face or food. Masks (and social distancing) can help reduce the first risk, while avoiding touching your face, frequent hand hygiene and cleaning surfaces can reduce the second. So bring masks, wipes, and hand sanitizer. The hand sanitizer should contain at least 60% alcohol.
4. Prepare your pillows and linens. We know that people infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, can spread the virus on sheets and pillows (and other surfaces), even if they are asymptomatic. We also know that respiratory viruses can penetrate cushion covers and penetrate microfiber filling. So you might want to consider bringing your own pillows and sheets.
During your trip
5. Use disinfectant wipes to clean the high-contact surfaces of your rental car. These would include door and window handles or buttons, light switches, seat adjustment controls, radio controls, steering wheel, glove box button, gear / drive and handbrake levers, rear view mirrors, and mirror controls.
6. How about singing in the car? The more intense the activity, the greater the possibility of releasing droplets and aerosols and the more they will travel. So laughing and singing will release more of these than talking and talking will release more of the breath. However, if you are traveling in a family group or with your roommates, you have been in close contact with each other at home and the additional risk would be low.
Read More: This video shows how easily COVID-19 could spread when people sing along
7. Maintain social distances at gas stations. Leave at least 1.5 meters between you and the next person while paying for fuel, ordering food, and when using the bathroom. Be sure to wash or sanitize your hands after touching surfaces such as gas pumps, doorknobs, bathroom taps, and before getting back in your car.
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8. Pay with cards instead of cash to avoid touching the money. Many people can handle bills and coins for an extended period of time, providing many opportunities to transfer pathogenic microbes from one person to another. Using contactless payment also helps keep social distance.
9. It is safer to eat outdoors than indoors if you stop for a snack or lunch. This is because large volumes of air dilute the density of the viral particles in the air. Evidence from a study of COVID clusters in Japan suggests that the possibility of transmitting COVID is more than 18 times higher indoors than outdoors.
Learn more: how to stay safe in restaurants and cafes
When you arrive
10. Is your hotel or rental accommodation protected from COVID? Ask the hotelier what measures he has taken to make the place less conducive to the spread of COVID. For example, did they introduce extra cleaning or disinfection?
11. Use disinfectant wipes in rented accommodation to clean high-contact surfaces such as door handles, light switches, cabinet handles, faucets and toilet flush buttons You can also put dishes and cutlery in the dishwasher on a hot cycle. This is because the virus can remain viable (capable of causing infections) on surfaces for many days.
Following these simple steps can help you keep your trip memorable in the best possible way. Happy holiday!
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