DETROIT – United Airlines canceled more than 100 flights on Christmas Eve because of COVID.
If you are traveling, or gathering with family, on Christmas there are things you can do to have a safer celebration.
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“Here in Michigan and across the country omicron is the dominant variant, which was predicted by health officials,” Dr. Asha Shajahan said.
Shajahan is with Beaumont Health. Shajahan said hospitals are seeing more and more COVID cases.
“What we know about omicron is that it does seem to be more infectious, so that means you’re more likely to get it, if you’re in a crowded gathering. That can be kind of alarming, especially around the holidays, when we’re trying to gather with family and friends,” Shajahan said.
Dr. Shajahan said that’s why they’re encouraging everyone to be cautious and safe, especially during the holiday season as we gather indoors to be with our families.
“I would really recommend, that if you’re going to be in an indoor gathering of people, know if they’re vaccinated or not. If it’s a fully vaccinated group, you’ll probably be in better shape. If you don’t know whether the people who are going to be at your gathering, are vaccinated, than I’ll highly recommend wearing a mask,” Shajahan said.
She said those same safety rules apply while traveling too. Millions of people are expected to drive or fly this holiday weekend.
“If you’re traveling in an airport, I highly recommend you wear a mask. The thing is, you don’t want to wear just a cloth mask, a cloth mask doesn’t offer enough protection. The reason why we wear a mask, is that we don’t want to breathe in these air particles of the virus. The best masks are the N-95 masks, and the 95 means, it filters through about 95% of the particles. So there’s the N-95, the KN-95, those are the highest level of protection,” Shajahan said.
Health officials said with the amount of people traveling this holiday season and spending time with their families, they are expecting another possible spike and increase of numbers, once people return home.
Read: Complete Michigan COVID coverage