As we embrace the holiday season, we are presented with obstacles we must overcome to maintain safety for ourselves and those around us. Which has many of us asking ourselves how to safely navigate the holidays during a pandemic?
While still having to manage the craziness of holiday shopping, and the headaches of facilitating gatherings of family and friends, we are now in the position of dealing with a global pandemic, and the consistent hurdles that come along with it.
Here are a few tips to help you stay safe and sane during the holidays.
Celebrating During A Pandemic
When deciding how to plan and spend the holidays, referencing the CDC’s guidelines and suggestions is always a great place to start. They have broken down common activities we all participate in during the holiday season, and have categorized them by risk of exposure to COVID-19.
Some of the lower risk activities they list include:
- Celebrating holidays at home with only members of your household.
- Contacting friends and family virtually
- Shopping online instead of in-store
Participating in small outdoor activities, events, and gatherings while following recommendations (such as wearing face masks, social distancing, and using hand sanitizer) are indicated as a moderate risk.
Anything where a large amount of people are gathering, including shopping in person, are ranked as high risk activities.
For those individuals who still wish to attend or host holiday gatherings, the CDC has also outlined considerations of factors that may increase risk of contracting COVID-19.
These factors include location, duration, number of attendees, community levels of COVID-19, and behavioral factors of those attending.
For those hosting gatherings, you may want to discuss with your guests beforehand if they have been traveling, have had any recent exposures or symptoms, or are at an increased risk of experiencing more severe symptoms if they were to contract the virus.
Taking proper precautions during the gathering, include social distancing as much as possible, hosting the gathering in an outdoor setting, providing means of hand sanitation such as hand sanitizer and hand soap for guests or bringing your own, wearing a mask when you are not eating or drinking, and avoid sharing food or drinks.
Traveling During A Pandemic
The CDC states that traveling (especially by means of bus, plane, or train) can increase your risk of exposure. If you do decide to travel, researching local safety laws and regulations as you plan your trip, will help you stay informed, and can help prevent any confusion or frustration.
Before and after traveling, you may want to get a COVID-19 test to minimize the risk of spreading the virus.
You locate your nearest COVID-19 testing through the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services website or call your primary health care provider for testing information in your area.
Taking the proper precautions if traveling is necessary, can help minimize the risk of contracting the virus as much as possible.
To do so, the CDC recommends remaining 6 feet away from others, keeping your hands clean, wearing a mask throughout your travel, avoid contact with individuals who appear sick, and avoid touching your face and mouth as much as possible.
Those who are experiencing symptoms should refrain from traveling to protect loved ones, and those they may come in contact with while traveling.
Shopping During A Pandemic
This year, you may want to opt out of the crowds and tackle your shopping online. Most retailers offer the same, if not similar, promotions online as they do in store. You may want to make sure you tackle your shopping early to make sure the gifts you ordered arrive on time.
If you find yourself needing to do some last minute shopping, you may want to consider ordering online from a retailer which offers curbside pickup, or local same-day delivery. This can help minimize exposure to other individuals, and can even help save a little time trying to tackle last minute holiday errands.
If curbside pick-up is not an option for your location, you may want to make a list beforehand, and minimize the time spent in store to reduce the duration of possible exposure. Making sure you wear a mask while you are shopping, utilizing hand sanitizer, and minimizing touching objects that may have been touched by others, are precautionary measures you may want to take to help reduce risk.
Conclusion
Staying home and celebrating the holidays with members of your household may be the greatest contribution you can make to reducing the spread of COVID-19. However, this is a choice we all have to make for ourselves and our families.
For those individuals who decide to participate in holiday festivities outside of their homes, it is important to take the precautions necessary to reduce the risk for ourselves and those around us.
These precautions can be summarized as follows: practice social distancing, maintaining clean hands and reducing touching objects that have the potential to be contaminated and your face and mouth, and reducing the time spent around others, especially in large groups.