With COVID restrictions eased, people are glad to be able to travel around, but Dr. Martin Ortega, regional chair and assistant professor in the Family Medicine Department at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, said there are still some precautions that are good to take.
Vaccines also are available to all age groups.
“I think there’s a lot of people that are really excited to be able to travel and certainly that excitement is warranted. I think all of us are really grateful for that opportunity. And there’s mixed feelings, I guess, because there is that respect for that realization that we’ve gone through some times where that wasn’t the most prudent thing because of the health situation nationally and globally,” Ortega said.
“I think that for some people … who have had really difficult experiences with COVID either for themselves or with their families are concerned about people in their family that haven’t been vaccinated or … have additional concerns, so it’s mixed but I think that we’re really grateful that we have the opportunity to explore and to travel overall.”
Although shots are available and hospitalizations have waned, Ortega said COVID is not completely gone.
“… We still have cases from time to time and I think over this last month we’ve seen a little bit of an uptick compared to maybe April. Still thankfully, again, it (hasn’t) … translated into a significant burden for individuals or communities for hospitalizations or big bulks of office visits.”
“But I think that some things to have in mind as we go about traveling would be to carry over some of those lessons learned from the past two-plus years that have been really helpful; things like hand hygiene and being thoughtful and considerate with our planning whether that means choosing to self isolate if we’re not feeling well and either testing at home or going and getting tested or wearing masks if we know that we’re sick. Those things have been very, very helpful over the course of the two-plus years. I think if they’ve become part of our health habits we should continue to incorporate them as we go (forward),” Ortega added.
The pandemic has shifted to becoming endemic, or more common, so people will probably still get sick, he said. Also with restrictions lifted and people don’t have to wear masks on flights or at certain events getting sick is going to happen.
“… But things that we can do to mitigate our risk would be to again practice good hand hygiene. I know that certainly I’ve become more aware of it. I know that washing my hands more frequently or having hand sanitizer available in my car as I’m going about doing things is something that I didn’t used to do all the time that this has brought to my attention, has become a new habit. I think that all of us as people probably developed that greater awareness, and like I said, are things that can help us as we continue to move forward,” Ortega said.
“Certainly availing ourselves of opportunities seeing the vaccination as a tool to protect our health is something that is also very important and thankfully very, very available.”
