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Alert level 3 has reintroduced a number of activities and consumer goods previously restricted under prior alert levels.

Crowds gathered to stock up on alcohol yesterday (consider ordering online, if that’s not your vibe), while others enjoyed a jog around the block without having to keep an eye on the time, or roll out of bed at an ungodly hour.

Don’t be shy to follow up your run with a G&T, you’ve earned it.

Also on the cards again is air travel for business purposes only from OR Tambo, Cape Town, King Shaka, and Lanseria international airports, with more to come.

Make sure you brush up on how air travel will work going forward before trying to book a flight.

While we can travel by plane, the question on many people’s mind is how safe is it to lock yourself in a metal tube with strangers during a pandemic?

CNN spoke to an epidemiologist and an exposure scientist, Kacey Ernst and Paloma Beamer respectively, to provide some clarity on the situation.

The primary concern with flying — or traveling by bus or train — is sitting within six feet of an infected person. Remember: Even asymptomatic people can transmit. Your risk of infection directly corresponds to your dose of exposure, which is determined by your duration of time exposed and the amount of virus-contaminated droplets in the air.

Then there are contaminated surfaces. Even if planes are disinfected before and after flights, the people on them during travel are going to be touching things.

Ernst and Beamer recommend that you take a moment to think through the particulars of each trip. Here’s a checklist of things to take into consideration:

• Is the trip entirely necessary, or can it be delayed?
• Do you have any conditions that could make you more vulnerable to the virus?
• Is the person that you’re meeting on the other side at risk of exposure?
• Is it possible to drive?

If you have decided to fly, you need to do the following:

• Phone the airline and check on their safety protocols. You don’t want to find yourself sitting in close proximity to someone once you’re on the flight and can’t leave. Are they spacing passengers with empty rows and seats?
• Try and book a window seat. It decreases the radius around you (you are only exposed from three sides rather than four), and limits your contact with people walking up and down the aisle.
• From check in to boarding, you’ll be encountering a number of surfaces. Keep sanitiser and wipes on you to keep your hands clean and to wipe down surfaces.
• Bring plastic zip bags for personal items that others are going to touch like your ID.
• Once you’re in your window seat, stay put.
• Wear a mask at all times.

Once you’re on the plane, take comfort in the following:

When the ventilation system on planes is operating, planes have a very high ratio of outside fresh air to recirculated air – about 10 times higher than most commercial buildings.

Plus, most planes’ ventilation systems have HEPA filters. These are at least 99.9% effective at removing particles that are 0.3 microns in diameter and more efficient at removing both smaller and larger particles.

It’s still risky business, though, so stay on high alert, practise your safety protocols, and stick to airlines that are making your health and safety their priority.

[source:cnn]