CDC recommends safe practices in celebrating the 2021 holidays

The holidays are fast approaching. With Halloween just four weeks away, Thanksgiving to follow three weeks after that. Those festivities being in consideration, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a set of guidelines on how Americans can celebrate a safe holiday. As the highly contagious delta variant is still a threat, CDC urges remote and virtual celebration.

CDC sees face-to-face social gatherings as a big risk of having higher cases again. Though the same surge of cases happened Thanksgiving last year, the cases surged further up to New Year.

CDC said, “Attending gatherings to celebrate events and holidays increases your risk of getting and spreading COVID-19. The fastest way to celebrate is virtual, with people who live with you, or outside and at least six feet apart from others.”

A healthcare worker administers a shot of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine to a woman at a pop-up vaccination site operated by SOMOS Community Care during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., January 29, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Here are the best practices that CDC suggests to celebrate the holidays safely:

• CDC proposes that the safest way everyone can celebrate is through virtual interactions. Gathering outside is feasible as long as social distancing or celebrating with those in the same household.
• If people decide on a face-to-face celebration, CDC urges people to get vaccinated. The agency also advises having conversations with the other attendees and explaining the expectations for celebrating together. Those who are sick and experiencing Covid-19 symptoms are advised not to attend any gathering at all.
• The agency is strict on its mask protocols. As per the CDC guidance on mask-wearing, the unvaccinated should wear masks indoors of public places. While the unvaccinated should still wear masks outdoors in crowded areas, the vaccinated people should wear masks only in high-risk areas with Covid-19 transmission.

As the holiday season approaches, the CDC released new guidance overnight recommending gatherings be held outside when possible and that unvaccinated people and those who can’t be vaccinated wear masks indoors. pic.twitter.com/XRyPQh77LB

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) October 3, 2021

Travel Mandates

• When celebrating indoors, windows and doors should be open for ventilation. CDC also recommends placing a window fan in an open window. As this will “pull fresh air in through the other open windows.”
• While CDC suggests that people hold off on holiday travels until fully vaccinated, this is inevitable for the unvaccinated. CDC has safe travel tips whether the unvaccinated people are traveling with children not yet eligible for the vaccine shots. They can take flights with fewer layovers or stops. Or if going on short trips, they can go by car for lesser exposure.
• If traveling by plane or any public transportation, people should wear masks.
• Whenever vaccinated or acquired Covid within the last three months, people aren’t required to quarantine or test upon arrival to their destination. But the CDC said after travel, all people should check for symptoms and get tested if they develop any.
  

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While the agency gives the green light to the vaccinated, they encourage the unvaccinated to skip traveling entirely. For those who should travel, they should take a test within three days. After arriving, they still need to a test again 3-5 days later. Whether the test is positive or negative, it’s still a requirement to quarantine for 7 days.

As Dr.Anthony Fauci said on CBS News, “it’s just too soon to tell” whether the Americans will be able to pull off a safe celebration. “We’ve just got to be concentrating 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.”