The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is again advising against indoor gatherings to celebrate the upcoming holidays.
What You Need To Know
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is again advising against indoor gatherings to celebrate the upcoming holidays
- In guidance updated Friday, the public health agency says, “The safest way to celebrate is virtually, with people who live with you, or outside and at least 6 feet apart from others”
- Anyone planning to attend an in-person event with people from outside their household should get vaccinated if eligible, wear a mask indoors and have conversations ahead of time to understand what the expectations are
- As for holiday travel, the CDC still recommends that people delay their trips until they are fully vaccinated
In guidance updated Friday, the public health agency says, “The safest way to celebrate is virtually, with people who live with you, or outside and at least 6 feet apart from others.”
The CDC offered a list of suggestions for how to safely celebrate the holidays during the pandemic, including video chat parties with family and friends and outdoor parties with everyone distanced at least 6 feet apart.
Anyone planning to attend an in-person event with people from outside their household should get vaccinated if eligible, wear a mask indoors and have conversations ahead of time to understand what the expectations are, the agency said.
The CDC notes that masks are generally not needed outside, but it suggests that people consider wearing face coverings in crowded outdoor settings in regions with high COVID-19 transmission rates.
While the CDC makes it clear that it believes outdoor events are safer than indoor ones, it suggests that hosts of inside gathering open windows and use a fan to blow air out of one of the open windows, which would help pull fresh air in through the other windows.
The guidance does not directly address Halloween trick-or-treating, but, in what might be a preview of recommendations to come, it suggests that food or gifts be left “in a way that does not involve contact with others, such as leaving them at the door.” Last year, the CDC recommended people avoid direct contact with trick-or-treaters and that people set up stations with individually bagged treats for kids to take.
In an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” last week, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said she thinks children should be able to go trick-or-treating this year if they are outside and in small groups.
Asked Sunday about Christmas, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said it is “just too soon to tell” whether gatherings should be limited.
According to CDC data, the number of new COVID-19 cases fell 36% from Sept. 1 to Oct. 1 to a seven-day average of 103,422. But the worst wave of the pandemic followed Thanksgiving and Christmas last year.
“We’ve just got to concentrate on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months and say what we’re going to do at a particular time,” Fauci said Sunday, also on “Face the Nation.” “Let’s focus like a laser on continuing to get those cases down. And we can do it by people getting vaccinated and also in the situation where boosters are appropriate to get people boosted.”
As for holiday travel, the CDC still recommends that people delay their trips until they are fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated people who must travel are advised to get tested for COVID-19 before and after their trips, self-quarantine for at least seven days after travel and avoid being around people who are at an increased risk for severe illness for two weeks.
Safer travel options include short car trips with household members of fully vaccinated individuals, and flights with the fewest stops or layovers.
