Avoid gatherings and use your imagination to create fun, safe activities
Don't get tricked that COVID-19 disappears like a ghost on holidays. Treat your children to low-risk Halloween activities such as a candy hunt at home.
The pressure to create gatherings increases during seasonal festivites, and we also know that parties, reunions and other events led to COVID-19 spikes around the region during Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day.
The daily habits and smart choices the pandemic requires aren't just costumes we get to take on and off during the holidays. Face coverings, hand washing, and physical distance all help keep a still dangerous, untreatable virus away from our families and our community.
In a City and region famed for creativity, let your imagination lead you while keeping to a small, stable group that meets outdoors and wears face coverings. Instead of block parties - including formal ones, such as Russell Street, that have been cancelled citywide -- enjoy COVID-safe events such as the Fourth Street Halloween drive-through light show at dusk on Friday and Saturday, October 30 & 31 or the Elmwood District's Halloween window scavenger hunt.
The safest way to celebrate is at home
The best way to minimize your risk is simple - stay home. Do something festive with your household, like:
- Host an online costume party
- Pumpkin carving or painting
- Backyard candy hunt
- Spooky movie marathon
- Make a batch of pumpkin spice scented hand sanitizer
- Play an at-home game like Halloween Hoopla
- Go on a themed family scavenger hunt around your neighborhood - see how many different Halloween-related objects (spiderwebs, black cats) you can spot
If celebrating with others, keep gatherings small and safe
Combined state and City public health rules now recommend private gatherings be limited to a maximum of three households of no more than 20 people that are in stable groups that stick together over time - a "social bubble." If you do celebrate with people outside your household, keep it small and less than two hours in length. While together, follow COVID-19 guidelines:
- Stay outside: activities are much safer outdoors than inside during COVID-19
- Wear masks: Have fun with a cloth costume mask. Most store-bought costume masks are not a substitute for a COVID-19 face covering.
- Stay 6 feet apart
- Don't share food
- Wash your hands often
Never go to a social gathering if you are sick. If you are at a gathering and someone else seems sick, leave.
Trick-or-treating: avoiding is best, adapt if you must
Traditional trick-or-treating is not safe during COVID-19. Handing treats directly to children going door-to-door creates many opportunities for exposure and spread - even if done outdoors with masks. Bay Area Health Officers have urged everyone to avoid trick-or-treating this year and Día de los Muertos gatherings.
If skipping is not an option, stick to "one-way" trick-or-treating: line up individually wrapped goodie bags at the end of your driveway or edge of the yard. This will allow children to pick up bags while keeping a safe distance from others. Remember to wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds before and after preparing the bags.
If you choose to participate in one-way trick-or-treating, please follow COVID-19 precautions:
- Wear face coverings while out and stay 6 feet from others
- Use hand sanitizer often while out
- Wash your hands immediately when you come home
- Don't eat any candy until you get home and have washed your hands
Stay alert and keep streets safe for all
For those who do go out on Halloween - whether for a drive around town to admire decorations, a walk to enjoy the fall weather, or for one-way trick-or-treating, please be cautious. Children are more likely to be hit and killed by a car on Halloween than any other night of the year, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.
If you're driving, please use extra caution:
- Watch carefully for children walking on roadways, medians, and curbs or crossing the street mid-block. In dark costumes, they'll be harder to see at night.
- Put your cell phone in your glove box to reduce distractions
- Slow down in residential neighborhoods. Give yourself extra time to react to children who may dart into the street.
- Enter and exit driveways carefully. When backing out, have someone stand behind the vehicle to make sure no children are walking by.
When on foot, stay aware of your surroundings. Stick to sidewalks, look both ways before crossing the street, cross at marked crosswalks, and carry flashlights after dusk so you'll be visible to drivers.
COVID-19 doesn't take holidays off. For the health of our whole community, please avoid parties and trick-or-treating this Halloween. If you do go out, stay alert and keep roads safe for everyone.
For Halloween safety recommendations in Spanish, see Consejos para pasar un Halloween seguro and La Orientación sobre cómo celebrar Halloween y el Día de los muertos de forma segura de Los Oficiales de Salud del Condado locales.
