At the start of 2022, with pandemic fatigue setting in and the majority of Canadians having received at least two doses of the vaccine, many hoped this summer would finally return to normal.
The majority of public health restrictions were lifted across Canada in the spring and early summer, including measures such as masking requirements in public indoor spaces and vaccinations for flying domestically.
However, in June and July, the new subvariants of Omicron caused a new wave of COVID-19 cases. So is it actually safe to travel right now?
Experts say there is no point in postponing travel indefinitely in the hope that COVID-19 will be eradicated.
“COVID is not going away anytime soon,” Dr. Angela Cheung, senior scientist at the University Health Network in Toronto, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.
However, she emphasized that learning to live with COVID-19 doesn’t mean abandoning mitigation efforts and allowing it to spread unchecked — it means making COVID safety a regular part of your schedule, including when planning travel.
FACE MASKS
The number one thing travelers can do to reduce their risks quickly and simply is to cover up indoors while traveling and anywhere else they feel the need, experts say.
Cheung compared it to carrying an umbrella in case of rain.
“Do you need a mandate to tell you that you have to carry an umbrella?” Cheng said.
“If you want to get wet, it’s best not to bring an umbrella. If you want to get COVID, of course, don’t mask up.”
Dr. Kieran Quinn, a clinician-scientist at Toronto Sinai Health System and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview that “a mask is better than no mask, but there are certain types of masks, like N95 and KN95, which offer better protection.” He recommended securing some of these before traveling if possible.
“People should wear masks indoors where there are many other people around or in places where there may be high-risk people who are immunocompromised or older,” he said. “We continue to strongly recommend that people wear masks. And I hope people will continue to do it because it has been proven to protect themselves and others from infection.
Cheng reiterated that she would personally wear an N95 on a plane, but said her main advice is to “wear a mask that you would wear” and feel comfortable in.
If you want to wear a higher-quality mask to be safer in confined spaces, such as an airplane, and you don’t normally wear N95s in your daily life, Cheung recommended practicing wearing one for at least the duration you would wear it on an airplane , to see if it’s too uncomfortable and you’re touching it all the time, or if you can handle it.
STAY UP TO DATE ON VACCINES
Vaccines reduce the risk of severe disease and provide some protection against transmission, even against these more transmissible variants, and anyone who wants to travel should be vaccinated, experts say.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Brian Conway told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview last week that anyone eligible for a fourth vaccine should try to get one before taking a major trip.
“If you haven’t fired three shots, don’t travel,” he said.
According to Quinn, a fourth dose may not be needed immediately, but “certainly the three doses have been very effective in reducing transmission and severe disease. And our third dose rates in Ontario and across Canada, we still have room for improvement.”
PRIORITIZE SAFER EVENTS AND PLACES
At this point in the pandemic, conflicting advice from governments and experts means many Canadians are deciding what safety means to them.
“Safety is a personal choice, right? And it comes down to people’s comfort with risk, and everyone has different risk thresholds, just like investing or crossing the street,” Quinn said.
In that light, experts offer these thoughts to consider if you want to minimize your risk while traveling.
Before confirming a trip:
Staying closer to home rather than traveling the world by jet can be a safer concept, experts say. Traveling where you know who will be in close contact with you in the vehicle may be safer than other modes of travel.
“Certainly, I would feel more comfortable in my car with my family than in a public airport with a bunch of other people, especially if those people aren’t masked,” Quinn said.
If you’re traveling abroad, you might want to research vaccination rates in different countries in advance, Conway suggested, adding that it’s a protective measure both for other countries and for travelers who shouldn’t risk bringing COVID-19 into a country that was denied access to vaccine.
While traveling:
Experts say trying to find more things to do outside than inside can help.
“It’s obviously safer to go on a hike in nature where there aren’t many people than to go to a hockey game or a concert,” Cheung said. “So what you do on your holiday can also determine your risk.”
She added that with these new variants of COVID, the outdoors is not always a guaranteed safe location.
“People can also get it outdoors, especially in fairly close contact outdoors,” she said.
“Personally, I would say I would choose trips like hiking and outdoor activities and kind of minimizing indoor public spaces as much as possible for the protection and safety of my own family,” Kuhn said.
While crowded indoor spaces are the big danger, outdoor events where people are side by side for many hours can still be dangerous, experts say.
“If you’re going to travel, avoid areas you already know are at risk for COVID transmission,” Conway said. “Crowded indoor spaces for a long period of time. So, as much as possible, it’s summer, if you’re going to go to a foreign country, eat on the patio.
“If I had to travel, I wouldn’t go to see an event in an indoor stadium […] with 30,000 of your closest friends all shouting at each other. “
Whenever it is possible to know the ventilation levels of a building or event, this information can help you decide whether a visit is a good idea or not.
“There are cinemas in Asia where they advertise how good the ventilation is,” Cheung said. “We really need to do this everywhere, indoors, malls, stores and restaurants and things like that.”
“If you have good airflow and clearance and you have HEPA filters and stuff, then your risk is lower.”
For example, a crowded outdoor festival can actually be more risky than walking through a large, well-ventilated museum that isn’t too crowded.
If you are traveling with immunocompromised or elderly people, or traveling to visit someone at high risk, take this into account when assessing acceptable risk levels.
HAVE BACKUP PLANS
If you contract COVID-19 on vacation, it may mean you have to extend your trip in one place to self-isolate, and this is something to keep in mind when planning your trip.
Cheung added that if you don’t take time to rest, not only will you put others at risk, but you could make your own illness worse, and the need to be hospitalized in another country can cost a lot of money if you don’t have insurance coverage.
If traveling has the potential to expose you to more situations where you can get COVID-19, consider whether you have a place to stay and recover if the worst-case scenario happens.
KNOW WHEN TO STAY AT HOME
The bottom line: don’t travel when you’re sick, experts say.
“Although you may have booked this holiday and the last thing you want to do is cancel or postpone it, if you have symptoms suggestive of COVID then you should stay at home and not go out in public because it exposes others at risk,” Quinn said.
“If you have any symptoms of any kind, you should not travel,” Conway said. “I think if you’re sick, you stay home.”
He added that rapid test results should not be used as an excuse to travel when you are sick, for example if the rapid test is negative but you have a new, persistent cough. Rapid tests are less sensitive than PCR tests and are more likely to give you a false negative early in an acute illness than PCR.
After a difficult two years of pandemic isolation and restrictions, Cheng said it makes sense that people would want to travel.
“I completely understand that people need a vacation,” she said. “And so it balances the upside of vacation and travel against the risks of it.”
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