COVID-19 Traveling Concerns Ahead Of Thanksgiving Holiday

The CDC said celebrating Thanksgiving virtually or with the people you live with is the safest choice this year.

A Bristow health expert told News On 6 she knows people are still going to travel and said they should be prepared when they do.

This holiday season, healthcare professionals recommend distancing and avoiding travel.

Bristow Endeavor Healthcare chief nursing and operations officer Rebecca Benham said if you plan to leave town, you should self-quarantine for 14 days before you go and take a test one to three days prior. 

“Elimination is almost impossible, elimination of risk,” Benham said. “So the value really tends to be in reduction. [We should] do our due diligence and be good stewards of the healthcare in our community and to our neighbors.”

Benham said you should also look closely for signs and symptoms of early on set, and conduct temperature checks.

Oftentimes, Benham said, Oklahomans mistake symptoms for seasonal allergies, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. 

Benham suggested limiting stops, using hand sanitizer with the proper alcohol percentage, and being hyperaware of the communities you're traveling through. 

"Map it out to where you can maybe stop at areas that are less dense and are having less cases," Benham said. 

She believes air travel is a higher risk than ground travel. 

"Only because you have a little less control over who you're coming in contact with and also tracing methods,” Benham said. 

Travelers can prepare in advance by packing snacks and by limiting the number of pit stops.

The Tulsa International Airport said it frequently sanitizes high-touch points like gate areas, doorknobs, door handles and elevator buttons. 

TIA director of air service and marketing Andrew Pierini said Southwest Airlines and Delta Airlines still block off their middle seats. Many airlines have air purification standards and mask requirements. 

"It's a great time of year and we're doing everything that we can to make sure that the airport is safe," Pierini said. “That the airlines are doing everything they can to make sure that their planes and your experience on board is safe and clean." 

The International Air Transport Association said you're more likely to get struck by lightning than you are to contract COVID-19 on an airplane. 

"When people have been traveling recently, they get more confident in what the airlines are doing, as well as what we're doing at the airport,” Pierini said. 

Pierini told News On 6 that flights at TIA are approximately down about 50 percent compared to this time last year. This is likely based on capacity being down about 30 percent from the airlines, but he said there are still busy times. 

“You're still going to have those peak travel days of Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving, as well as the Sunday after Thanksgiving, which is typically the busiest travel day of the year," Pierini said. 

The airport recommends passengers arriving 90 minutes before departure. The check point will open as early as 3:45 a.m.

Benham said her biggest concern is how travel could impact Oklahoma hospitals that are already scrambling to deal with COVID-19 patients. 

"It's a complex domino effect, so to speak, on the outlying facilities and rural healthcare," Benham said. “Our beds are filling up in our metro hospitals, in our high acuity hospitals.” 

Benham said the hospitals frequently meet capacity but also must reserve some beds for the traumas that come in through emergency rooms. She said hospitals are having to hold patients of higher acuity that they would normally prioritize.

Health professionals said they are having to increase staff to compensate but said they have a large staffing shortage across the board. 

Benham said rural hospitals often don’t have ICUs, which is another cause for concern.

Through the years, Benham said our knowledge of respiratory illnesses has evolved. At one point, you were told to cover your cough with your hand but later learned to cough into your elbow.

According to Benham, masks are a similar concept. She believes there is value in reduction and assured that masks definitely reduce the risk of contracting or spreading the virus.