Whether you’re travelling overseas or returning to a regular commute there is a lot to think about since COVID-19 first made headlines earlier in the year. Although there will always be some risk to travelling during the pandemic there are steps that individuals and employers can take to help reduce these and make travelling safer and simpler for everyone.

• Work out whether you’re particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. If you are on the vulnerable persons list or you have a health condition that could make you more susceptible to getting a bad case of COVID-19 it might be worth assessing whether you want to take the risk of travelling at all right now. If you are going to travel, ensure that you have insurance (if overseas) and emergency numbers to hand if you start to feel unwell.
• Limit your exposure to someone who has the virus. This might be something as simple as moving away from another person who is displaying symptoms or bearing in mind the risks of various methods of transport. For example, most airplanes will have an air filtration system that will help to avoid the virus being circulated around the plane but you will still be vulnerable to anyone who is sitting close to you.
• Wash your hands. It’s the simplest way to minimise the potential of catching COVID-19. Make sure you wash your hands when you arrive at your destination, before you eat and when you’ve touched surfaces, for example in an office. You can also consider using alcohol based hand sanitiser regularly too. Hand washing should be for 20-40 seconds using soap and water. When you’re travelling try to avoid touching your face with your hands as this can increase the risk of transmission from any affected people or surfaces.
• Stay healthy. Although there is no official recommendation that the healthier you appear to be the less likely you are to be affected, ensuring that you have a strong immune system is likely to give you a fighting chance. If you’ve always wanted to quit this is a great time to give up smoking. Make sure you’re getting 7-8 hours sleep a night and that your diet includes your five a day.

A note for employers. It’s in every employer’s interests to help ensure that employees remain healthy. There is plenty that you can do to support this, including increasing cleaning within the office and providing hand washing and hand sanitising stations. Give staff facemasks and ask them to ensure that they wear them while walking around the office. For many organisations it’s arrival and departure times that are the most difficult. One tip is to stagger arrival times for staff in the morning to avoid a situation where everyone is getting to the office at the same time. Allow people to leave at intervals too so that they have minimal contact with others on the way out.

As the world moves back towards a more “normal” day-to-day existence we all need to get used to a new way of travelling, from holidays and trips to the daily commute. Change to: We can help ensure your employees have the supplies they need to feel and stay safe – from sanitising products to deep clean services. Explore our store online today or contact us for more information about our deep clean service.