29: Long-Distance Public Transportation Guide

Q: Can I travel long distances during the pandemic?

💁Tracy:  Try to avoid all unnecessary travel. If you have to travel abroad, you must understand the immigration and other health regulations of the destination country.  For domestic travel, please follow the CDC guidelines, and minimize all long-distance travel unless essential.  When you absolutely have to travel to areas with a large number of infected cases, you should keep track of real-time pandemic information and have appropriate protection. Try to avoid public transportation, such as buses, trains and planes. Driving yourself or taking a taxi is recommended.

Q: What should I watch out for when travelling long distances?

💁Tracy: Do not travel if you have COVID-19 like symptoms. Please do self quarantine at home. Take public transportation only after you have no symptoms for 14 days or test negative consecutively.

If you have to travel long distances by public transportation, please consider 3 phases of the travel:

1. Before the travel:

• Book an earlier morning flight, such as the 1st flight in the morning, after the airplane has been disinfected at night; 
• Following the same way of travelling in the less crowded time, avoid peak travel time;
• Plan your trip ahead of time, to minimize your time spent in public places; take a direct flight, bus, or train, for example, is preferred, so you don't have to go to multiple stops; 
• Ask to arrange your seats away from the crowded seats, avoid middle seats if possible;
• Prepare masks, gloves, goggles, face shield, hand sanitizers, wipes, small bottle of alcohol and bleach, saline rinse for nose, eyes, and mouth wash;
• Prepare some snacks before and after the travel, and to avoid eat meals on the airplanes, buses, trains, etc;
• Prepare medicine and supplements to take on the trip; Vitamin C, D, and chewable Vitamin C, and other multi-vitamins and minerals are the essential ones; 
• Take good rest and sleep before the travel, reduce stress, be organized and think ahead of time; do not rush in the last minutes, this will increase stress level, reduce body immunity, and elevate your risk of infection; travel-related stress is the #1 thing to be reduced;

2. During the travel:

The most important thing to remember is to minimize interactions with others, maintain social distancing, and reduce exposure to the virus in public places, especially in small confined indoor places with large number of people; other considerations include:

• If possible, sit next to an empty seat;
• If possible, stay in your own seats; don’t walk around; avoid close contact or interactions with others; do not shake hands (wave your hands or elbow touch if you have to have some form of greetings with others);
• Keep bus, car, training windows open during the trip if possible. Ventilation can help prevent infection.
• Stay outdoors as much as possible, for example, while you are waiting during transportation

• Text or call other fellow travelers by phone, rather than talk directly face to face;
• Wear masks on buses, cars or planes. Keep the masks on during sleep. Surgical masks are the best. It may not be comfortable to wear N95 masks for a long period of time. But if you have to sit in a crowded small airplane, N95 is recommended;
• Wear eye goggles or face shield if you have to sit in such a situation;
• Wash hands and disinfect hands with wipes and hand sanitizers frequently during the trip;
• If you cannot fully protect your eyes, nose, mouth, or want to add additional protection after each leg of the travel, during the stop of the travel such as when you get out of the airplane, go to bathroom, rinse your nose with saline spray, rinse eyes with saline water, goggle mouth with saline water or mouth wash, wash your face with soap, use alcohol Q-tips to clean nose and ears (including ear canal); 

Eating food during travel:

• Take chewable Vitamin C or drink fresh lemon water during travel; 
• Avoid eating junk food, taking alcoholic beverages, or soft drinks;
• If travelling short distances, do not eat while you are in public transit or in public places, take snacks and eat in outdoor places when you have to take mask off;
• If you are in a good health, try to eat high-protein and/or high-energy food before you leave home, so you don’t need to eat during the trip. If you have to eat, try to avoid eating during peak hours. Take your mask off right before eating. Don’t touch the inner side of the mask. Fold the mask and place it in a clean sandwich bag. Eat quickly and put the mask back on immediately after you finish eating. Always wash or disinfect your hands before eating, and do not touch food directly with your hands;
• Try to eat food at a different time of other passengers if you absolutely have to eat food during the flight (such as long-distance international flights). Flight attendants are recommended to distribute food in batches on different schedules. This is to avoid the spread of droplets when other people are taking food.

Other considerations

• Do not wear a gas mask that covers your entire face. You may be asked to take off your mask to have your temperature taken at certain security check points. This may increase your chance of getting infected if you are not properly protected with your mask being taken off.
• Don't talk to others without wearing masks;
• Avoid touching any public places or objects;
• Do not touch your face without disinfecting your hands;
• Maintain social distancing, especially from others who are coughing, sneezing, or display other cold symptoms;

3. After the travel:

• Take rest and sleep well, to reduce stress;
• Adjust your activity level, so you are not overwhelmed, stressed out, or try to do too much during your travel; over-using your energy will reduce your immunity and ability to ward off the virus;
• Eat healthy and take supplements, such as Vitamin C and D, other nutrition and herbs to boost immunity;
• Change your cloth immediately after travel; do laundry if possible, otherwise, keep your cloth in a sealed laundry bag for 3 days and wash afterwards;
• Take a shower immediately after you get home or get to your hotel;
• Monitor your conditions closely after the travel; 
• Keep a log and dairy of your travel, especially people you have interacted with; these will come handy in case you need to do contact tracing, or start to experience symptoms after travel;
• When you finish the travel, monitor your condition for 14 days;

• Choose a seat to maximum social distancing

• Wear gloves to avoid unnecessary touching. In particular, do not touch bathroom door handles and other frequently touched areas.

• Wash hands frequently, or disinfect hands often using alcohol cotton pads, disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer. When using faucets, either wipe handles with disinfectant before turning the water on, or use toilet paper to touch the handle. 

Tracy’s toolbox ü  Pack disposable paper towels and wipes to wipe eyes, nose, and mouth; avoid touching face directly with your hands. ü  Carry a small bottle of disinfectant, alcohol cotton pads, cotton balls or disinfectant wipes. ü  Carry a small bottle of disposal hand sanitizer for disinfection; use disinfectant wipes to wipe seats. ü  If possible, bring multiple disposable masks. ü  Carry several Ziploc sandwich bags with you for masks that need to be reused or discarded.

Reference

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-in-the-us.html
[2] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/index.html
[3] https://www.who.int/ith/en/

Writing: Qingda Lu, Helen Shih; Translation: Chaoyu Xie; Proofreading: Xiao Luo, Suzhen Jiang, Fred F Guo; Artwork: Jiehuan Liu

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