SUMMIT COUNTY, Ohio — Ohio updated its travel advisory on Wednesday, recommending anyone who travels to Florida, Idaho, Mississippi or Nevada quarantine for 14 days when they come back to Ohio.

Alabama and Texas were taken off the travel advisory list Wednesday.

Both Summit County and Cuyahoga County have traced COVID-19 cases from some of the states on the list.

"Any air travel, you increase your risk and the longer you're on an airplane, the longer your risk is," said Donna Skoda, health commissioner for Summit County Public Health. "And then the behavior that you engage with once you get to that destination — if you're hanging out at night if you're not socially distancing — also increases it.”

Skoda noted that “you can never 100% say where someone picked it up, even with the travel.” Sometimes, she said, it isn’t too difficult to figure out, but with community spread, “you just don’t know.”

She urged people to think about their risk level and minimize that as they plan vacations and trips, remembering that COVID-19 is everywhere.

“If you're going to fly, it is absolutely essential you leave on your mask, you stay as far away as you can from people until you get to your destination,” Skoda said. “Driving in a car is probably safer with your bubble, your family members. And when you get there, your behavior really does dictate a lot. If you're just going somewhere and gonna stay in a hotel and/or a condo, you need to still practice all of the social distancing, frequently wiping down surfaces and door handles, wearing a mask, staying away from folks and really trying to live the same kind of life you would live here, only on vacation.”

Dr. Amy Edwards, a pediatric infectious disease doctor and infection control specialist for University Hospitals, recommended choosing destinations where virus transmission rates are lower and taking the pandemic as an opportunity to try something new, especially something outdoors like camping.

"Anything that you can do outside is always going to be lower risk,” Edwards said. “Now's the time to get out and explore the national parks or your own local state park. There's so much to do."

She said while there is plenty of transmission going on in Ohio itself, she, too, has seen cases related to travel, particularly to Florida, and that some people seem to think COVID-19 isn’t a concern while they’re on vacation.

“I even had one person say that, you know, because they were in Florida, they thought with the heat they didn't have to wear a mask,” Edwards said. “And they [thought] that social distancing wasn't as important.”

Many cases are now a result of community spread, Edwards said, meaning you don’t have to travel to be high-risk. However, she said traveling and your activities still matter for contact tracing and infection control.

Edwards said the biggest trend UH has seen is people “doing more stuff with their friends and family.”

“Birthday parties, weddings, funerals, the day-to-day stuff that we do with our family, with our extended family, with our close-knit circle of friends, the people who are going back to those activities are the ones who are getting COVID,” Edwards said.

Skoda said Summit County has seen that, too.

“We're seeing that it happened a lot with family gatherings, birthday parties, graduations, picnics,” Skoda said. “And I think what happens is individuals know these people, they’re their family, they’re their close friends. And so when you're with people that you know, you start to let your guard down, and I think they don't understand that just because I'm your sister, your brother, and I'm here and I live across town and I came to visit you and we had a barbecue together, doesn't mean I don't have COVID.”

She added that a lot of people are asymptomatic and are probably at their most contagious a couple of days before they get symptoms.

“They sort of just put their guard down and hang together, and then before you know it, these little innocent barbecues have created three or four cases of COVID-19,” Skoda said.

She urged people to weigh their own risk and consider that engaging in these activities increases that risk.

“You can't do 20 things like you used to do. You should really try to pick the things that you know you're going to do and then do them well,” Skoda said. “And that is with social distancing and wearing the mask and really try to be careful so that you don't pick it up. I know it's hard. It's airborne. It's on surfaces. It's airborne. So you just have to be vigilant in protecting yourself and others.”

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