Fairfax County Offers Guidelines on How to Have a Safe Thanksgiving

In anticipation of the upcoming holiday season, Fairfax County Emergency Information released a list of guidelines with information on how to celebrate Thanksgiving safely.

The county emphasized it’s still vital to work to slow the spread of COVID-19. Despite the cold months and inevitable pandemic fatigue, community members can’t let their guards down now, health officials say.

The county’s seven-day average of cases is creeping up. On Nov. 2, the weekly case count was the highest since mid-June when an average of 137 cases was recorded on June 12. Now, that number has increased to nearly 134 weekly cases.

According to the guidelines, high-risk activities include:

• Going shopping in crowded stores just before, on, or after Thanksgiving,
• Participating in or spectating a crowded race.
• Attending crowded parades.
• Attending large indoor gatherings with people from outside your household.

Moderate-risk activities include:

• Having a small outdoor dinner with family and friends in your community.
• Visiting pumpkin patches or orchids where people use hand sanitizer before touching produce, wearing masks is encouraged or enforced and people can maintain social distancing.
• Attending small outdoor sports events with safety precautions in place.

Lower risk activities include:

• Having a small dinner with people who live in your household.
• Having virtual dinner and sharing recipes with friends and family.
• Preparing recipes for family and neighbors and delivering them in a way that doesn’t involve contact with others.
• Shopping online the day after Thanksgiving, as opposed to in-person.
• Watching sports events, parades, and movies from home.

The county also advises not participating in in-person activities if you or anyone in your household has or are showing symptoms of COVID-19. They advise following the CDC’s recommendations on holiday gatherings to further lower risk. Traveling increases the chance of getting and spreading COVID-19.

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