Mayo Clinic recommends staying at home for Halloween

Halloween is almost here and there’s concern about keeping kids and families safe from COVID-19.

We spoke with Dr. Kai Singbartl, Head of Infection Prevention and Control at the Mayo Clinic, about some safe alternatives to trick-or-treating that families can consider this year.

Singbartl emphasized, “if you are sick or if you’ve been exposed to somebody with COVID-19, please do not engage in any in-person activities. Stay at home and do not interact with other people.”

If you decide to celebrate with friends or neighbors, there are three important aspects that the Mayo Clinic encourages people to follow: keep at least six feet distance from people outside of your family, wear a two-layer fabric cloth mask when outside interacting with people, and frequently disinfect with hand sanitizer, especially when touching candy.

Mayo Clinic highly recommends staying at home with your family and celebrating Halloween within your household.

“Today’s technology allows us to do many things, via internet…you can have a Halloween costume contest…you can decorate, and carve your pumpkins at home and display them online,” said Singbartl.

These activities are considered “low risk” and will prevent safety hazards.

Mayo Clinic worries about the health and well-being of the community, “especially this time of the year with flu season around the corner there’s also another threat out there and those could become very big threats to our well being, to our community, to the health system,” said Singbartl.