With South Africa re-opening international travel for select travellers and poised to re-open domestic travel for business travellers when the country moves to Level 3 on 1 June, Sure Travel refers to the experts on how to minimize the risk of contracting Covid-19 during air travel.
The World Economic Forum recently published a guide written by Kacey Ernst, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Paloma Beamer, Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, both at the University of Arizona, which walks travellers through risk reduction from booking to disembarkation. Below is an extract of their full article:
The primary concern with flying – or traveling by bus or train – is sitting within six feet of an infected person. Remember: Even asymptomatic people can transmit. Your risk of infection directly corresponds to your dose of exposure, which is determined by your duration of time exposed and the amount of virus-contaminated droplets in the air.
A secondary concern is contact with contaminated surfaces. When an infected person contaminates a shared armrest, airport restroom handle, seat tray or other item, the virus can survive for hours though it degrades over time. If you touch that surface and then touch your mouth or nose, you put yourself at risk of infection.
While there is no way to make air travel 100% safe, there are ways to make it safer. It’s important to think through the particulars for each trip.
One approach to your decision-making is to use what occupational health experts call the hierarchy of controls. This approach does two things. It focuses on strategies to control exposures close to the source. Second, it minimises how much you have to rely on individual human behaviour to control exposure. It’s important to remember you may be infectious and everyone around you may also be infectious.
The best way to control exposure is to eliminate the hazard. Since we cannot eliminate the new coronavirus, ask yourself if you can eliminate the trip. Think extra hard if you are older or have pre-existing conditions, or if you are going to visit someone in that position.
If you are healthy and those you visit are healthy, think about ways to substitute the hazard. Is it possible to drive? This would allow you to have more control over minimizing your exposures, particularly if the distance is less than a day of travel.
If you choose to fly, check out airlines’ policies on seating and boarding. Some are minimizing capacity and spacing passengers by not using middle seats and having empty rows. Others are boarding from the back of the plane. Some that were criticized for filling their planes to capacity have announced plans to allow customers to cancel their flights if the flight goes over 70% passenger seating capacity.
After you book, select a window seat if possible. If you consider the six-foot radius circle around you, having a wall on one side would directly reduce the number of people you are exposed to during the flight in half, not to mention all the people going up and down the aisle.
Also, check out your airline to see their engineering controls that are designed or put into practice to isolate hazards. These include ventilation systems, on-board barriers and electrostatic disinfectant sprays on flights.
When the ventilation system on planes is operating, planes have a very high ratio of outside fresh air to recirculated air. Plus, most planes’ ventilation systems have HEPA filters. These are at least 99.9% effective at removing particles that are 0.3 microns in diameter and more efficient at removing both smaller and larger particles.
From checking in, to going through security to boarding, you will be touching many surfaces. To minimize risk:
* Bring hand wipes to disinfect surfaces such as your seat belt and your personal belongings, like your passport. If you cannot find hand wipes, bring a small washcloth soaked in a bleach solution in a zip bag.
* Bring plastic zip bags for personal items that others may handle, such as your ID. Bring extra bags so you can put these things in a new bag after you get the chance to disinfect them.
* Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer as often as you can. While soap and water is most effective, hand sanitizer is helpful after you wash to get any parts you may have missed.
* Once you get to your window seat, stay put.
* Wear a mask. If you already have an N95 respirator, consider using it but others can also provide protection.
* We do not recommend the use of gloves, as that can lead to a false sense of security and has been associated with reduced hand hygiene practices.
Each day, we are all constantly faced with decisions about our own personal comfort with risk. Arming yourself with specific knowledge about your airport and airline, and maximizing your use of protective measures that you have control over, can reduce your risk.
A good analogy might be that every time you get in the car to drive somewhere there is risk of an accident, but there is a big difference between driving the speed limit with your seat belt on and driving blindfolded, 60 miles an hour through the middle of town.
Originally published by the World Economic Forum. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum or the Sure Travel Group.