CDC releases holiday guidelines
As the holiday season approaches, many regional residents are making plans to celebrate an unusual Thanksgiving. Given the increasingly concerning trends in COVID-19 cases nationwide, health experts are recommending that people take a number of precautions to make their holiday safer.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the absolute best thing people can do this Thanksgiving is have a small gathering with just their household. That means eating at home, only with people who you ordinarily live with, instead of visiting a different house and meeting up with friends and family.
While precautions like wearing masks and social distancing are effective at reducing the chance of infection, the best way to prevent the spread of the virus is to not be in the same room as infected people, the CDC says.
And because a person’s most infectious period is an average of two days before they start showing symptoms, most people don’t even know they’re infected while they’re spreading the virus.
If you have an internet connection that allows for videoconferencing, the CDC suggests a virtual Thanksgiving, where households eat their meals separately but still spend time together remotely. Even just calling relatives on the phone and making time to talk with them is a good way to recognize the spirit of the holiday while also keeping everybody safe, they say.
While gathering with people outside the household is discouraged by the CDC, they also have some recommendations for those who will be gathering this Thanksgiving anyway. Primary among them is wearing a mask or other cloth face covering that covers the nose and mouth. While this may be impossible while eating, the CDC strongly recommends that people wear a mask while they’re talking, cooking, or spending time with others. The mask prevents the wearer from inhaling some viral particles, and also greatly decreases the number of viral particles exhaled if the wearer is infected. The CDC also recommends people do their best to stay six feet away from anyone who doesn’t live in the same household. Six-foot distancing, when combined with mask wearing, further decreases the possibility that one person’s exhaled germs are inhaled by another.
They also recommend regular handwashing for at least 20 seconds for anyone with running water available. In the absence of running water, hand sanitizer is an adequate alternative.
For those attending a gathering, bringing your own food and dishes and staying out of the kitchen or food preparation area are good ways to minimize your impact in case you’re infected.
For hosts, they recommend limiting the number of invited guests, setting expectations that everyone wears a mask and keeps their circles small prior to the gathering, and celebrating in an area with as much air circulation as possible.
In the Bering Strait/Norton Sound region, where case numbers are low compared to the rest of the country, it can be tempting to set precautionary measures aside and gather like normal, Norton Sound Health Corporation Medical Director Dr. Mark Peterson said. But with cases spiking across Alaska and the virus appearing in new regional communities every day, he strongly recommended that residents of the region take the recommended precautions seriously.
He especially cautioned against flying out of the region for the holidays, where case numbers are climbing at an even greater rate. He recognized how painful it can be to spend the holidays apart from family and friends, but for the sake of the health of the entire region, his instructions were clear: “Stay at home. Don’t visit family. Don’t fly out of the region.”