Masks can provide extra protection on trips

Nothing can derail travel faster than getting sick

There’s no quicker way to ruin a vacation than getting sick, and travelers should be wary of catching a respiratory virus during their journeys.

It could end up as just the common cold, or be something more serious like the flu or COVID-19.

Since the winter season began, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has noticed “elevated and increasing (though not dramatically)” COVID-19 activity in the U.S., the agency said in late December. Particularly, travelers should be aware of the latest most widely circulating COVID-19 variant, JN.1.

“JN.1’s continued growth suggests that the variant is either more transmissible or better at evading our immune systems than other circulating variants,” the agency said.

Travelers are always at a higher risk of catching COVID-19 since they’re moving quickly through multiple places. The CDC’s Traveler-Based SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Surveillance – which collects samples from international travelers arriving from more than 25 countries at major U.S. airports – found a 32.9% positivity rate for pooled samples the week of Jan. 1. The following week showed a slight decline with a positivity rate of 27.8%. The most common variant found in these travelers was JN.1.

Here’s what to know if you’re traveling soon and wondering about your risk of COVID-19 and how to stay safe:

Are COVID-19 cases rising?

Coronavirus cases were recently on the rise, but have been declining as of about two weeks ago.

For a while, the JN.1 variant was spreading rapidly. In December, the CDC said hospital admissions for COVID-19 increased by more than 50%.

The week ending on Jan. 9 saw 34,876 new COVID-19 hospital admissions in the U.S. – the highest since a year ago on Jan. 24, 2023.

However, the most recently released data of the week ending Jan. 20 reported a 14% decline in hospital admissions and a 1.2% decline in test positivity.

The states with the highest rates of new hospitalizations last week were New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, West Virginia, Connecticut and Arkansas.

The states and territories that saw the highest week-over-week increase in COVID-19 hospitalization rates were Puerto Rico, with 36.3% more hospitalizations last week than the week before, and New Mexico, which had 24% more. Alaska also had a 13.9% rate increase.

What are the masking rules in air travel?

Federal law no longer requires passengers to wear face masks on domestic flights as of Spring 2022, so it’s up to individuals to mask. Since then, nearly all international destinations have also dropped their own mandates requiring masks in planes and airports. If you do want to mask up, some airlines like Southwest Airlines can provide one.

Is air quality safe inside a plane?

For the most part, yes. Airplane ventilation systems are effective at making the onboard air as clean as an operating room, Leonard Marcus, director of the Aviation Public Health Initiative at Harvard University, told USA TODAY in April 2022.

When a plane is in flight, its ventilation system draws in air from outside and discharges half of the “used” air back outside while filtering the rest, so air is constantly moving inside the plane, helping to greatly reduce transmission risks. It may not feel like it, but the air inside a plane is being exchanged at a rate of about 10 times more than in typical office buildings.

A 2020 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the risk of catching COVID-19 during air travel is low, thanks to the continuous exchange of air and the flow from top to bottom.

When grounded, the plane has to use an onboard auxiliary power unit to operate the ventilation system and also pump in air from an outside air compressor. Most aircraft also use high-efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, filters that catch at least 99.97% of dust, pollen, mold, bacteria and the tiniest of particles, including COVID-19.

Should I wear a mask while traveling?

Although airlines said their cleaning processes meet CDC guidelines and passengers are usually given sanitizing wipes when they board a plane, experts agree that masks add an extra layer of protection against contracting COVID-19 during air travel. Outbreaks on planes can still happen when some passengers are infected.

The CDC recommends people wear a high-quality mask like an N95 when in crowded or tight spaces, like on the airport jetway to board a plane, or if travelers are passing through a destination with high levels of respiratory illnesses.

Passengers exposed to someone with COVID-19 within 10 days or feeling under the weather, should mask, cancel or rebook their flight.

Wearing a mask while traveling is also just a good gesture to fellow passengers. “Wearing a mask during travel can also help protect others who cannot avoid being in crowded places when they are traveling,” said the CDC.