How to enjoy Halloween in times of covid-19?
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(CNN Spanish) -
This weekend Halloween is celebrated and, although it is a party that takes place in the United States and other Anglo-Saxon countries, the date has become popular in Latin America.
In Mexico, for its part, it is the celebration of the Day of the Dead.
Both festivities involve human contact and meetings.
In this episode Dr. Elmer Huerta, an expert in Public Health, gives us health recommendations to enjoy both Halloween and Day of the Dead in the healthiest way possible.
You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform, or read the transcript below.
Hello, I am Dr. Elmer Huerta and this is your daily dose of information about the new coronavirus, information that we hope will be useful to take care of your health and that of your family.
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Today we will see what measures we should take as a family to celebrate Halloween and the Day of the Dead in a healthy way.
I do not know what customs you have in your house in relation to Halloween or Halloween, a celebration that in recent decades has become widespread in Latin America.
In the same way, if you live in Mexico, it is likely that your family celebrates the Day of the Dead in their own way.
The fact is that many families, especially those with children, wait and celebrate Halloween to accompany the little ones to ask for sweets from house to house wearing their longed-for costume.
But how to do it in this time of pandemic? Is it safe?
How to celebrate Halloween
Today we will see some basic tips to celebrate Halloween and the Day of the Dead, taken from the guides of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States (CDC).
The activities that we can develop on Halloween can be of three types: low, moderate and high risk.
Low-risk activities include:
Decorate the interior of the house.
Decorate the garden with neighbors or friends, but at a safe distance.
Organize games with the children at home or in the garden.
Organize a virtual Halloween costume contest inside the house.
Watching Halloween movies with the people you live with.
Moderate risk activities include:
Attend an outdoor costume parade where people wear masks and are at least 6 feet (two meters) apart.
Being around children who are screaming.
Remember that screaming can cause virus sprays to be expelled into the air.
Going to see a Halloween movie outdoors, while people are at least two meters apart and wearing a mask.
Remember that disguise masks do not have the same protective effect as cloth masks.
One option may be to use a fabric mask with Halloween-related prints.
For their part, high-risk activities include:
Pick up treats from door to door or at public events where there are many people without masks or who do not keep their distance.
Go to a costume party indoors with lots of people.
Go to a haunted house where people can be crowded and screaming.
How to celebrate Day of the Dead
In the same way, the activities that we can develop on the Day of the Dead can be of three types: low, moderate and high risk.
Low-risk activities include:
Prepare traditional meals for relatives and neighbors, and deliver them without coming into direct contact with them.
Listen, at home, to the music loved by deceased loved ones.
Make and decorate masks or make an altar for the deceased.
Join a virtual celebration.
Moderate risk activities include:
Participate in small group parades outdoors where people are more than two meters or 6 feet apart.
Visiting and decorating graves of loved ones with household members and staying more than two meters or 6 feet away from others who may be in the area.
Attend an outdoor dinner with family and friends, where people are more than two meters or 6 feet apart.
Lastly, high-risk activities include:
Go to massive closed-door celebrations where people are singing.
Dining with people who come from different geographical locations.
Using alcohol or drugs that can cloud judgment and increase risky behaviors.
We believe that, in this time of pandemic, it is still possible to have fun and entertain children.
But we must do so by always remembering that a gram of prevention is worth much more than a ton of cure.
Do you have questions about the coronavirus?
Send me your questions on Twitter, we will try to answer them in our next episodes.
You can find me at @DrHuerta.
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Thanks for your attention.
If you have any questions you can send them to Dr. Elmer Huerta via Twitter. You can also head over to CNNE.com/coronaviruspodcast for all episodes of our “Coronavirus: Reality vs. Reality” podcast. fiction".
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