Prioritizing your health during travel should be encouraged and taken seriously. It has become more necessary to do so these days because of the pandemic. Airplanes and hotel rooms take up most of your travel hours, it is nonetheless, required of you to practice good hygiene. An average seatbelt buckle or tray table carries more germs, making you more likely to come into contact with them, thereby, transferring these germs from one place to the other. The same goes for hotel rooms; you can’t be certain that housekeeping would pay extra cleaning attention to those surfaces that are within your reach.
Airplanes and hotel rooms are public spaces and so, germs can live on surfaces for a long time, hence, the need to sanitize.
Here are some sanitary tips to help you improve your chances of a disease-free travel.
Airplane Hygiene
- Wipe as you board: pack along with you disinfecting wipes. Wipe all hard surfaces ranging from tray tables, seatback pockets, seatbelt buckles, head and armrest, the screen, and remote control. Avoid using disinfecting wipes on upholstered seats; use disinfecting wipes on leather seats only. For the disinfecting wipes to work effectively, read the time duration written on the packaging. It tells you how long a surface is required to stay wet; the timing could range from thirty seconds to some minutes.
- Maintain good hand hygiene: your hands are one of the main carriers of germs and so it is important to ensure they are sanitized and kept clean. You can’t always remember where your hands have been, therefore, wash or sanitize your hands regularly. For touch-screen television, use a tissue when operating it. Keep healthy toilet hygiene. Avoid using your bare hands to raise or drop toilet seats, touch taps, or door handles. Use tissue instead and dispose properly on your way out. After every toilet use, ensure to wash your hands with soap and water, thoroughly.
- Keep your hands away from your face as you can unknowingly pick up droplets from saliva, sneezes, or cough. Use a generous amount of alcohol-based hand sanitizer if you can’t immediately access the bathroom for soap and water.
- Book a window seat: Inflight, passengers tend to touch aisle seats for balance as they walk by, and so, it is not the best seat on a flight. Booking a window seat limits the amount of passenger contact. Choose a window seat as it is considered the safest during flu season.
Hotel Hygiene
- Inquire about the covid-19 cleaning protocols before booking. Don’t hesitate to ask about their disinfecting and sanitizing practices.
- Sanitize your luggage: wipe or spray your luggage with disinfectant before you enter your hotel room.
- Disinfect surface areas: wipe hard surfaces like doorknobs, shower handles, taps, toilet flush handles, light switches, remote control, bedlamps, wardrobe handles, handles of safe deposit boxes, intercoms, and food menus with disinfecting wipes.
- Wash utensils: use soap and water to wash drinking glasses, cutlery, ice buckets or you can drink from your water bottle.
- Wash your hands regularly.
One can never be too relaxed when it comes to matters of hygiene these days.
To ensure an illness-free trip, it is essential to follow these safety guidelines.