Health

Travel medicine expert on safest ways to travel

BOSTON — While she recommends avoiding travel this year, Dr. Lin Chen said there are numerous precautions that can be taken to minimize risk of the spread of COVID-19.

First, driving your own vehicle is likely the safest way to travel, according to Dr. Chen, Director of the Travel Medicine Center at Mount Auburn Hospital and President of the International Society of Travel Medicine.

If you’re taking a plane to get to your destination, she said thinking about pre-boarding is important.

“Try to avoid crowded areas (and) keep distance on the flight, keep your mask on, wash your hands well,” Lin added.

Once around family and friends for Thanksgiving, setting expectations at the outset is best.

“Some people might want to hug, kiss, share the same food from the same platter,” Chen said.

“If there are different families getting together they need to keep to themselves, keep to their own pods to keep from.”

On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans against traveling with COVID-19 cases surging to a record 185,000 new cases in one day.

At Boston University, Boston 25 News spoke with more than a dozen students living out of state, most are staying in Boston.

“Things seem to be getting worse I’d rather not fly and go to my parents and maybe bring something to them,” said Lucila Bloemendaal, a graduate student from Texas.

Samuel Kahn is a freshman from Brazil who struggled to get to Boston to start his college career because of travel restrictions.

“I’m in a situation right now where I can’t leave the country, I’ve got to stay on campus,” said Kahn.

Nia Hoq is from the Washington, D.C. area, and will go home, but won’t fly there.

“I just didn’t feel like flying would be like a safe option,” Hoq said.

During the week of November 2 to November 8, outbound travel was down 79%, according to a spokesperson for Massport.

From November 9 to 15, there were just 83,146 outbound travelers, that’s also nearly 79% less than a year ago.

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