--- title: How to Stay Safe from COVID-19 During 2022 Holidays description: The holiday season often brings COVID-19 spikes due to travel and gatherings. Here's how to stay safe during the 2022 holiday season. canonical: https://time.com/6226692/covid-19-holiday-plans-travel-2022/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-10-31T20:06:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T14:58:13.018Z article:section: Health og:title: How to Stay Safe from COVID-19 During the 2022 Holidays og:description: Boosters, tests, and masks still work og:url: https://time.com/6226692/covid-19-holiday-plans-travel-2022/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9b5ab7b9e4e8edf7/698a36f0e6e84a00472af751/covid-holiday-travel.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: COVID-holiday-travel og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Stay Safe from COVID-19 During the 2022 Holidays twitter:description: Boosters, tests, and masks still work twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9b5ab7b9e4e8edf7/698a36f0e6e84a00472af751/covid-holiday-travel.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Stay Safe From COVID-19 During the 2022 Holiday Season > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Oct 31, 2022 8:06 PM UTC  A woman wearing a face mask checks for flight arrivals at Los Angeles International Airport on July 1, 2022. A woman wearing a face mask checks for flight arrivals at Los Angeles International Airport on July 1, 2022. Frederic J. Brown/AFP—Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Oct 31, 2022 8:06 PM UTC After COVID-19 vaccines rolled out, many families said “good riddance” to Zoom and resumed in-person holiday gatherings—and with [increasing numbers of people embracing pre-pandemic lifestyles](https://time.com/6219580/new-covid-19-variants-concern-pew-survey/), it’s safe to assume that will be the norm this year in the U.S. But the virus still infects tens of thousands of Americans [each day](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends%5Fweeklycases%5Fselect%5F00), and experts fear [another winter surge may be coming](https://time.com/6223311/our-third-covid-winter-is-coming-america-isnt-ready/), just in time for the holidays. If you’re planning to travel or gather with loved ones this holiday season, follow these expert recommendations to maximize your chances of staying safe and healthy. ## Get boosted now Should you get your [Omicron booster](https://time.com/6214187/new-omicron-booster-antibodies/) now, or wait until right before the holidays? Dr. Kristin Moffitt, an infectious disease physician at Boston Children’s Hospital, suggests getting your shot now, rather than trying to time it for right before holiday events. After getting vaccinated, it takes a week or two for your immune response to develop. That protection should stay strong for at least two months, so “if people got boosted now, their maximum immunity from that booster would get them through the end of 2022,” Moffitt says. Before thinking about boosters, of course, you should make sure everyone in your family has had their primary vaccinations, says Dr. Lilly Immergluck, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Morehouse School of Medicine. That’s especially important advice for families with kids, given the [dismally low vaccination rates among young children](https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/covid-19-vaccination-rates-among-children-under-5-have-peaked-and-are-decreasing-just-weeks-into-their-eligibility/). ## **Rapid test before you gather** When new variants emerge, there’s often concern that at-home tests won’t be able to detect them. But Dr. Roy Gulick, chief of infectious disease at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, says rapid tests should still pick up [BQ.1 and BQ.1.1](https://time.com/6222686/covid-19-new-subvariants-bq1-bq11/) infections, since those variants are Omicron relatives. Frequent testing can help prevent those in your circle from unknowingly spreading the virus at holiday events. When Immergluck’s relatives stayed together over the Fourth of July weekend, she asked everyone to take a rapid test every day. “That’s not a 100% \[guarantee\],” she says, “but it’s about as good as we could get.” If you test negative but have classic COVID-19 symptoms such as sore throat, chills, and body aches, it’s still best to stay home, Gulick adds. ## Stay safe during travel [Masks aren’t required for most travel anymore](https://time.com/6151061/should-you-wear-mask-flights-covid-19-mandates/), but Gulick still advises wearing one—at least during certain portions of your trip. In general, air quality on planes is better than on buses and trains, so your chances of getting sick in the air are fairly low. But Gulick recommends masking while in the airport and when your plane is taxiing, since filtration systems may not be turned on when the plane is grounded. And if you’re traveling by bus or train, it’s a good idea to mask during the entire journey. ## Keep an eye on the data COVID-19 case counts are not as accurate as they once were, [in large part because so many people now test themselves](https://time.com/6168809/at-home-covid-19-test-results-should-i-report/) at home instead of using laboratories where results are then reported to public-health authorities. But there are still some metrics you can watch to get a sense of viral prevalence in your area. Hospitalization and death rates are still solid indicators of how widely the virus is spreading, Immergluck says. Moffitt also recommends paying attention to test positivity rates. Even if fewer people get tested in laboratories, knowing the percentage of tests that come back positive is “a fairly reliable marker because it’s relative to the number of tests that are being performed,” she says. ## Consider who you’re seeing If you’ll be spending time with loved ones who are immunocompromised, unvaccinated, or elderly, you may want to increase your precautions, perhaps by masking indoors or keeping festivities outside. “We need to protect \[vulnerable\] people by not giving them the virus,” Gulick says. ## Don’t forget about other viruses COVID-19 has dominated our thinking for the last few years, but influenza and RSV are also sickening lots of people right now. Moffitt says that’s all the more reason to take precautions like masking during travel and avoiding high-risk settings, such as crowded indoor events, in the week or so before your holiday plans. Getting a flu shot is also an important winter health measure, Gulick says, and one that [can be done when you’re getting your COVID-19 booster](https://time.com/6214102/covid-19-booster-flu-shot-same-time/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6226692/covid-19-holiday-plans-travel-2022/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6226692/covid-19-holiday-plans-travel-2022/"},"headline":"How to Stay Safe From COVID-19 During the 2022 Holiday Season","datePublished":"2022-10-31T20:06:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T14:58:13.018Z","description":"Boosters, tests, and masks still work","url":"https://time.com/6226692/covid-19-holiday-plans-travel-2022/","keywords":["COVID-19","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9b5ab7b9e4e8edf7/698a36f0e6e84a00472af751/covid-holiday-travel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9b5ab7b9e4e8edf7/698a36f0e6e84a00472af751/covid-holiday-travel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"COVID-holiday-travel","caption":"COVID-holiday-travel","creditText":"Frederic J. 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