Summer break is here! The kids are home, and it’s time to take a long awaited break from COVID-19. Traveling is well-established as being both spiritually and emotionally healthy. However, between flying in a congested airplane and encountering a near-infinite number of foreign bacteria, traveling can be unhealthy if you’re not fully prepared.

In order to ensure that your body is safe enough to combat the health risks associated with international and domestic travel, you’ll need to make sure you have the medicine, information, and vaccines necessary to make your trip enjoyable and risk free, and also to make sure that you don’t bring back any infectious diseases to spread to your loved ones.

So without any further ado, here is your travel vaccine checklist for summer 2021!

Plan ahead for your travel vaccines

Many travel immunizations need to be given in a series of shots given over a period of days or weeks, plus, vaccines take time to work. Travel health experts recommend giving yourself 4 to 6 weeks to meet with a travel health provider about how to plan for your travel and to get any needed travel vaccinations.

Recommended vaccines are travel vaccines that can protect you in areas where there is an intermediate or high risk for contracting certain illnesses. They also help prevent the spread of diseases from one country to another so that even if you do not contract the illness, you will not become a carrier of it back to your home country.

Required vaccines: the yellow fever vaccine may be required for travel to certain parts of Africa and South America. According to Goad, Saudi Arabia also has a meningococcal vaccine requirement during the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

COVID-19 vaccines: COVID-19 vaccine levels have been on the rise across the country. They are recommended by The CDC for traveling internationally. Although it is not required domestically, a COVID-19 vaccine will be your best safeguard against the virus, especially with the new Delta variant we are beginning to see.

In the U.S, Moderna, PFizer and Johnson & Johnson offer highly effective vaccines against COVID-19. You need two doses from Moderna and Pfizer and only one of Johnson & Johnson. It also takes a FULL 14 days to build immunity after the two doses of Moderna & Pfizer or the one dose from Johnson & Johnson.

AFC Urgent Care Vernon travel vaccines and medicine program

• Medical screening, consultation and assessment
• Medicines for malaria, diarrhea, motion sickness, & altitude sickness
• Required & recommended travel vaccines such as:
  • Typhoid vaccine
  • Tetanus-diphtheria vaccine
  • Meningococcal meningitis vaccine
  • Polio vaccine
  • Hepatitis-A vaccine
  • Hepatitis-B vaccine
  • Japanese encephalitis vaccine
  • MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine
  • Pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine
  • Influenza vaccine
  • Yellow Fever vaccine

What you should know about traveling during COVID-19:

Regardless of where you go this summer, keep in mind when going into airports or other means of travel:

• Masks are required on all public transportation options (Plane, Bus, Taxis, train, etc.) regardless of your vaccine status
• You should still social distance and use hand sanitizer

Here is important guidance and information for travelers going out of the country:

• You must test negative for COVID-19, 1-3 days prior to boarding an international flight.
• A negative viral test is also required 3 days prior to boarding your flight BACK to the U.S
• 3-5 days after you return, the CDC advises that you get tested after traveling internationally.
• Unvaccinated people must quarantine for a full 7 days after traveling internationally, regardless if they test negative. If you’re not vaccinated and you don’t get tested, the CDC recommends that you stay home and quarantine for 10 days. The CDC also suggests that you stay away from high risk individuals for 14 days whether or not you have been tested.

As for domestic travel:

• A COVID-19 vaccine is not required when going from state to state (although it is highly recommended, especially since people are flying in and out of the same airport you may be using)
• Fully COVID-19 vaccinated people do not need to test before or after travel unless it’s required for certain destinations like Hawaii (until July 8th)
• A viral test may be required when traveling to certain destinations like Hawaii. Upon returning to Connecticut it is also recommended to get COVID-19 tested 3-5 days after travel. During this time you should also self monitor symptoms and quarantine a full 7 days. If you do not get tested, then you should quarantine for 10 days.

If you are not feeling well upon return from your trip, you may need to seek a medical professional. You may have picked up a virus or other infection during your trip, even though you do not have symptoms until you return. Be sure to tell your doctor or your AFC provider about your travel, including where you went and what you did on your trip. This will help your doctor understand your symptoms to consider infections and illnesses that are rarely found in the U.S.

If you need COVID-19 testing before and after you travel, we offer RAPID COVID-19 testing 7 days a week with no appointment needed. Just walk-in.

Walk right into our urgent care center, no appointment necessary for your travel consultation and vaccines,  at 1030 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT 06119-1801. At AFC Urgent Care West Hartford, we are open 7 days a week and ready to treat you. We accept most insurances.