How To Safely Gather For The Holidays In The Time Of Covid
Christmas is right around the corner. Not seeing family for the holidays is a hard decision but the climbing Covid case numbers are causing concern. More and more people are having to decide what is best and we’re here to break down the information coming from health experts.
A Covid surge across the country is devastating families this holiday season.
There have been more than 100,000 Covid cases every day for the last 12 days breaking global infection records. Wisconsin was so hard hit that there were field hospitals to help with the overloaded and overburdened healthcare system in the state.
“It’s well above what we can tolerate right now and still save lives. I don’t know why it’s continuing to get worse. From a health care standpoint, we’re tapped out,” Dr. Ashok Rai, Prevea Health president and CEO in Wisconsin, told WBAY-TV. “Our beds are getting full every day. Nurses are exhausted. Physicians are exhausted. We’re exhausted.”
The holiday season could potentially make everything worse and we have proof of how delicate the balance is.
There have been small outbreaks here and there that show just how precarious the Covid situation is in the U.S. One of the most commonly cited examples is that of a wedding reception that led to seven deaths. The wedding reception, which took place in rural Maine, has disastrous consequences after one guest arrived with Covid-19. One positive person among 55 guests led to 176 infections and seven deaths. The people who died were not at the wedding reception.
Health experts and world-renowned physicians are calling on the American people to avoid family gatherings this year.
Americans are being warned to stay home and keep isolating as they have been since March. It is a hard ask since the holiday season is when families travel long distances to see each other for the special occasions.
The best things you can do to help keep others safe during this pandemic holiday season are what we have been doing for months. Avoid traveling and seeing people you have not been in contact with during the pandemic. Keep the celebrations to the household. Be mindful in handling meals and making sure it is all safe. And, of course, follow the three most important rules for making it through the pandemic: wash your hands, wear a mask, and practice social distancing.
Doctors are providing information for those who just can’t avoid an in-person holiday gathering.
If you absolutely cannot avoid an in-person, indoor holiday gathering, there are things you can do to be as safe as possible. One of the most commonly known things about the virus is that younger people are better when it comes to contracting and dealing with the virus, but young people die too. You want to keep the gathering outside as much as possible. Don’t drag things out. Keep it small and intimate. It’s even better if they are people you have been in a bubble with. Avoid physical contact with people at the gathering. Get used to waving and tapping elbows to say hi to your family while all wearing masks.
Remember, that we are still in the pandemic and we are all trying our best to get to the other side.
Make sure you keep these holiday gatherings as safe as possible. Think about the people around you and how much you want things to go back to normal. Sacrificing this holiday season is one of the hardest and most necessary things to do to celebrate holidays normally in the future.
We love you and we can’t wait for all of us to gather with family like Latinos do when Covid is behind us.
