KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people across the nation are trying to figure out how to go on vacation without contracting the virus.
"You can be safe when you travel, I think the thing you don't want to do is say let's go on a plane that is crowded," said Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System.
Jen Christensen, a local teacher, usually flies to Tuscon every year with friends. This year's vacation was different because of coronavirus.
"That's when we decided, 'Well, it's all adults. There is six of us. We can drive,'" Christensen said. "On our drive down, we always wore our masks when we went inside to use the restroom. We had a huge thing of hand sanitizer in the center console of the car."
The group went before Arizona's COVID-19 case numbers went up.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson with the University of Kansas Health System also recently went on vacation.
He said he protected himself on the flight by wearing a mask and eye protection. He made sure not to touch anything while getting on the plane and washed his hands after getting off.
"It's certainly more dangerous to fly on July 6th than it was on June 6th," Hawkinson said. "People are traveling more, people are opening up more, people are going places, but there is more virus spread as well."
When Christensen and her friends arrived in Arizona, she said they did things a little differently.
No one had been inside the house the group rented since November, and they didn't go to any public places such as grocery stores or restaurants.
"When we go down there, we literally lay by the pool all day. This house was empty. We go down there to relax. So, we never go out," Christensen said.
For food, the group did not go out to eat and had groceries delivered.
Doctors said while everyone wants to travel for the summer, they need to remember this virus is everywhere.
"It's all about your behavior. The reality is you can be just as exposed going to the local grocery store here in Kansas City as you can be traveling. There is no magic badness," Stites said.
Christensen said her group still enjoyed themselves, even if it was different than years past.
"It wasn't easy, but it was doable and we just knew we had the perfect socially-distanced vacation planned, so that made the drive perfect for us," Christensen said.
