Air travel amid the coronavirus pandemic is safer than grocery shopping or dining out

Flying to visit loved ones this holiday season poses a low risk for catching or spreading coronavirus, according to Harvard University scientists.

In fact, air travel is likely ‘as safe or substantially safer’ than every day activities like grocery shopping and dining out.

But keeping transmission risks of COVID-19 during airline flights very low relies on travelers to us face coverings and for airlines to up their sanitation efforts, scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health said on Tuesday, October 27th.

Researchers there found transmission risks can be ‘reduced to very low levels through the combination of layered infection control measures.’

The report, funded by Airlines for America – a trade group representing American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and others – and a consortium of aircraft and equipment manufacturers and airport operators, comes as U.S. airlines lose billions of dollars a month as passenger demand remains down 65 percent year on year because of the coronavirus. As long as everyone wears masks on board, Harvard University scientists said that the risk of coronavirus transmission on a flight is very low in a report released Tuesday +4

As long as everyone wears masks on board, Harvard University scientists said that the risk of coronavirus transmission on a flight is very low in a report released Tuesday

U.S. carriers are operating just 50 percent the flights they did in 2019. Some carriers have recently announced new plans to end blocking of middle seats during the pandemic.

The Aviation Public Health Initiative team at Harvard recommended strategies to mitigate transmission risk on aircraft, during boarding and exiting.

Source: Daily Mail