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Is Travel Risk From Covid-19 Higher Than Travel Risk From High Risk Activities?
Travel is the general movement of human beings between different distant geographic locations. Travel can usually be done with or without personal luggage, by foot, car, train, plane, boat, truck or any other means with or without transport, and is usually one-way or round-trip. The term “travel” can also mean the act of going about, a journey, or a path, especially in architecture, in a book, or in the movies.
The United States Department of State defines travel as “the systematic movement of individuals from one place to another.” It further explains, “The term travel is used for so many purposes that it has developed terms that are associated with different types of travel.” These include “adventure travel,” “journey,” “reporting,” “temporary visitor” and “mandatory travel.” A variety of other terms are used for traveling, but for the purposes of this article we will focus on the term “travel.” While travel is required when traveling outside of your home country is not, for the purposes of this article any traveler to the United States must be allowed immigration benefit status.
Over the years, there have been several major outbreaks of travel disease. Among these have been the plague in Asia, cholera in the Caribbean, measles in the United States, typhoid fever in China, dysentery in World War I and the Dutch flew in World War II. Each of these outbreaks caused thousands to thousands of deaths and hundreds of millions of new cases of various epidemics. With these disasters came the requirement for extensive travel screening and the necessity for stringent travel restriction legislation.
Today, the requirements related to travel are primarily focused on securing entry into the United States, but the laws regarding travel still require certain measures to be taken in case of an epidemic or severe disease is detected in an area outside of the country. Some of these requirements pertain to health issues such as ensuring that a person does not have a contagious illness, having adequate hand sanitizer facilities within the scope of one’s destination country, making sure that there are no public toilet facilities that are unsafe for traveling, and ensuring that one has a doctor on staff who can administer appropriate treatments when necessary. These requirements apply to people entering the country to visit relatives and to people traveling as part of a group. However, it is possible to enter the country without meeting these requirements if one can show that they will be treated and cared for adequately while away from home.
The primary reason to take steps to prevent illness while traveling is to protect yourself from the possibility of catching an epidemic. To do this you should avoid public settings such as shower and swimming pools. You should also take steps to protect yourself from the risk of communicable diseases by avoiding sharing personal items such as towels and clothing with others. Finally, you should avoid carrying disease-causing pathogens on your person so that you can avoid the spread of diseases from person to person. In the case of illness, you should follow all recommendations provided by your doctor.
In addition, an itinerary that includes frequent visits to hospitals and clinics can reduce the risk of illness during travel by up to 90 percent. A more complex route can increase the risk of an outbreak by a factor of three. In addition, if a person is traveling at an increased risk for severe illness from covid-19, they should look into ways to minimize their risk of exposure to travelers who have an increased risk for severe illness from covid-19. Such measures can include wearing gloves, washing hands frequently after use, and not sharing personal items.