'Be careful': UW Health doctor urges people to take precautions if traveling for spring break

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) – As spring break nears, people may be thinking ahead to vacations, but medical experts are urging everyone to remain cautious.

Experts say travel may be a little less risky now than it was over Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“It is safer to travel and something that you can consider doing, but with a lot of preplanning and thought,” UW Health Chief quality officer Dr. Jeff Pothof said.

Pothof said the safest thing to do is a staycation, but for those going somewhere it’s important to plan ahead.

“The thing you want to plan for this spring break are activities that are not with a lot of other people and can be done predominately outdoors,” he said.

If driving, Pothof urges people to always have a mask and to keep their distance from others at rest stops. For those who want to go somewhere further, flying isn’t out of the question.

“If you stay masked in your airport, stay masked on the plane, try to keep your distance with the lower level of cases, I’m not sure that I would say flying is an absolute no right now,” Pothof said.

If you’re planning to go to a state without precautions in place, Pothof said you may want to rethink the trip.

“For the most part I would say don’t travel to those states, it’s unsafe,” he said. “If you must travel to those states you’ve got to be really careful. You have to have your mask on, you have to keep your distance. Don’t think just because they repeal those mitigation efforts that was a good idea.”

Pothof said if people don’t take precautions, it could potentially lead to another surge of the virus, especially with variants.