HALLOWEEN GROUP MAKES FORECAST
Trick-or-treat OK in Clare County, use greater caution elsewhere
Clare County should be a go for trick-or-treating next month while the rest of mid-michigan is safe to proceed with greater precautions, according to a detailed map released by a Halloween costume trade group.
Clare got the green light from the Halloween and Costume Association based on data gathered and analyzed by the Harvard Global Health Institute that analyzded Covid cases, deaths and more on a county level nationwide.
With 108 cased and four deaths, Clare County is one of six of Michigan’s 83 counties to get a green go-ahead from the organization.
Others getting a go are Manistee, Lake and Ogema in the Lower Peninsula and Alger and Keweenaw in the Upper Peninsula.
The rest of mid-michigan - including Isabella and Gratiot conties - got proceed-with-caution yellow flags.
Red flags, where no trick-ortreating is recommended, were given to two counties, Ingham and Houghton.
Higher risks were also seen in nine orange counties: Cass, Kalamazoo, Ottawa, Iosco in the Lower Peninsula and Delta, Menominee, Dickinson, Iron and and Ontonagon in the Upper Peninsula.
Actual trick-or-treating rules will be set by local governments, but the group said the aim of their work is to arm those decision-makers with the best data available.
In releasing the map, the HCA said policy makers and the public have to base their decisions on the best information available. To help cut through the noise and sometimes conflicting advice, a network of research, policy and public health experts convened by Harvard’s Global Health Institute and Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics released the map on Monday.
“The public needs clear and consistent information about COVID risk levels in different jurisdictions for personal decision-making, and policy-makers need clear and consistent visibility that permits differentiating policy across jurisdictions,” ex
plains Danielle Allen, director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University.
“We also collectively need to keep focused on what should be our main target: a path to near zero case incidence.”
The new framework brings clarity to metrics that help communities determine the severity of the outbreak they are responding to.
“Local leaders need and deserve a unified approach for suppressing COVID-19, with common metrics so that they can begin to anticipate and get ahead of the virus, rather than reacting to uncontrolled community spread,” says Beth Cameron, Vice President for Global Biological Policy and Programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative and a member of the Covid-local.org team.
“Unless and until there is a whole of government response, with measurable progress communicated similarly and regularly across every state and locality, U.S. leaders will be left to react to the chaos of the virus - rather than being able to more effectively target interventions to suppress it.”
Specifically, in the four zones, the group recommends these activities:
• In the green zone, HCA says trick or treating can proceed normally, as long as social distancing guidelines are in place. Small parties with close friends are OK as well.
• In the yellow zone, trick or treating is still possible, but HCA says to make sure the places you are visiting follow safety protocols so you can stay safe. Any partygoers should be wearing face masks indoors.
• In the orange zone, HCA recommends “trick or treat in reverse!” This means that kids can get dressed up in their favorite costumes and hang out in their front yards, and neighbors can walk or drive by and deliver candy to kids. Parties should be outdoors only with social distancing guidelines followed.
• In the red zone, trick or treating is not recommended. HCA says there are too many risks involved. Instead, they recommend Zoom parties, Netflix parties, and setting up candy stations inside and outside of the house for kids to discover throughout the night.