Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advice for Halloween
From communion with the dead to pumpkins and pranks, Halloween is a patchwork holiday stitched together with cultural-religious, costume traditions, and candy swiping. Centuries back, children wearing scary costumes were encouraged to travel door-to-door for a treat or charity. The yearly tradition was safe and sound until the cursed 2020 arrived. Nothing can be scarier than the COVID-19!
The COVID-19 has put some sort of limitations to most of the festivals, and so will do the same with Halloween 2020. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is urging families to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advice for Halloween this year.
Minimizing virus spread risk
Among the key guidance: A Halloween costume mask is not an appropriate substitute for a protective cloth mask unless it is made of two or more layers of breathable fabrics. Avoid wearing a costume mask over a cloth mask because it can become hard to breathe.
Do not organize indoor gatherings especially with poor ventilation as they pose more risk than outdoor gatherings. Shrink the duration as well as the number of people at the gatherings.
Celebration attendees who are traveling from different places may bring a higher risk than the attendees who live in the same area. Ask them to follow physical distancing guidelines (staying at least 6 feet apart), mask-wearing, hand washing, and other responsible behaviors.
If children or adults are participating in high-risk activities or think they have been exposed during the celebration, take extra precautions. Stay home after the celebration and consider getting tested for COVID-19.
Parents with trick-or-treat care
Nothing says Halloween like a carved pumpkin, but more than 40 percent of Halloween injuries last year were related to pumpkin carving. This Halloween, carving tradition can be cut-off from the celebration and put aside to avoid nonsense tragedy. Instead, parent-kid trick-or-treating can be an alternative to socially distanced but not socially awkward Halloween celebration.
According to Morning Consult, 79% of parents indicate they have taken candy from their children after a night of trick-or-treating. To ensure special treats during the Halloween season, 31% of all adults in the same poll have plans to “stash” some sort of their favorite candy away for themselves.
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