Hold off on planning any Halloween parties this year, health officials warn

Halloween is looking extra scary this year, says Ottawa Public Health, which is already warning people against organizing Halloween-themed parties and get-togethers.

“We are in the midst of a significant resurgence, and all of us have to limit our contacts in order to flatten this curve,” Dr. Brent Moloughney, Ottawa's associate medical officer of health, said in a media briefing Thursday afternoon.

“When it comes to hosting a gathering, whether it be a party or a haunted house or other get-together, much like Thanksgiving, we're asking people to limit their Halloween celebrations to their household contacts.”

It will be another week or two before OPH can say whether it's safe for children to go trick-ortreating door to door, Moloughney said, which will depend on whether Ottawa's COVID-19 infection rate continues to climb and on guidance from the provincial medical officer of health. OPH has been fielding calls from worried parents about what to do for Halloween, so it decided to get out early with its messaging, he said.

“We're asking residents to be creative. Create new traditions. Have a scary night with members of your household. Have a scavenger hunt with your children instead of taking them trick or treating. Decorate your house ... with a little bit of innovation, we can still have an enjoyable Halloween.”

The advice came after a sobering day in which Ottawa Public Health reported a record number of 183 COVID-19 infections, the highest daily number since the pandemic began. And with Thanksgiving at hand, Moloughney noted that every holiday long weekend has been followed by an even higher spike in COVID-19 cases.

“It is yet another record we really don't want to break. Both cases and hospitalizations have doubled since the week of Sept. 13. We are not seeing the curve slow down.”

The urgent need to limit physical contact was driven home by what happened at an indoor wedding in

Ottawa last month in which one person who attended despite having mild COVID-19 symptoms led to 22 other infections, including an outbreak in a group home and at least one infection in a school. Altogether, 207 people ended up self-isolating and needed testing.

“It shows what can happen when just one person attends a gathering,” he said. “Just think about the case management involved and think about how many lives that disrupts.”

Thursday's numbers push Ottawa's total number of COVID-19 cases to 5,153, with 3,978 of them now considered resolved. One new death was reported, bringing the city's total number of COVID-19 deaths to 296. Ontario reported 797 new cases on Thursday — also a record — and four new deaths.

“The COVID-19 situation in Ottawa is critical,” said Coun. Keith Egli, chair of the Ottawa Board of Health, echoing other warnings for the Thanksgiving weekend to “stay local, keep gatherings to members of your household only, and to connect with members of your extended family and friends virtually, instead of in person.”

“Today's COVID-19 data is, frankly, alarming,” he said.

Holidays will “look and feel different” during the pandemic, Egli said. He also pleaded with residents to be “COVID kind,” especially to people working in the service sector. And though he didn't specify any particular incident, Egli seemed to be addressing a case last weekend in which two men harassed staff and customers at a market on Somerset Street West.

Despite Thursday's grim numbers, Moloughney did offer some glimmer of optimism. Because there is a lag between when people get infected and when they show symptoms, the cases announced Thursday are a sign of what happened two weeks ago. If people heeded warnings when Ottawa's numbers started to climb again, infections might yet decline, he said.

“If people started changing their behaviour 14 days ago, it could drop.”