The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued its first guidelines for celebrating Halloween amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CDC has listed a number of ways to celebrate the holiday and categorized them as low, moderate or high-risk activities.
"High risk" Halloween activities:
- Traditional trick-or-treating
- Crowded indoor costume parties
- Indoor haunted houses
- Hayrides or tractor rides with people not in a family or who don't live together
"Moderate risk" Halloween activities:
- One-way trick-or-treating, with bags lined up for families outdoors, and social distance maintained
- Costume parties outdoors where people can remain six feet apart
- Open-air, one-way, walk-through haunted forest visits
- Visiting pumpkin patches or going apple picking, while maintaining social distancing, wearing masks, and using hand sanitizer
"Low-risk" Halloween activities:
- Carving and decorating pumpkins with the family or members of a household
- Decorating a house, apartment or living space
- Having a virtual Halloween costume contest
- Having a family or household Halloween movie night
For a look at the full guidelines, visit the CDC website here.
This story was originally published by Katie Morse on WKBW in Buffalo, New York.