Want to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah next year? Then stay home this year, experts say
Despite pleas from health experts to avoid traveling and gathering for Thanksgiving to prevent coronavirus spread, about 9.5 million people still passed through airport security during the holiday travel period.
Now, Christmas poses a similar threat to health care systems and people alike, “only this may be even more compounded because it’s a longer holiday,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN on Monday.
With Hanukkah starting this week, Christmas in two, Kwanzaa immediately after, then New Year’s, Fauci worries the next round of infections could be worse.
“I think it could be even more of a challenge than what we saw with Thanksgiving,” Fauci told CNN. “I hope that people realize that and understand that as difficult as this is, nobody wants to modify — if not essentially shut down — their holiday season, but we are in a very critical time in this country right now.”
“We’ve got to not walk away from the facts and the data,” he added. “This is tough going for all of us.”
There are nearly 15 million coronavirus cases in the U.S. as of Tuesday, and more than 284,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins. On Monday, the U.S. reached the most current hospitalizations reported in one day of 102,148, The COVID Tracking Project found.
Some states are even considering closing non-essential businesses for a second time. Ohio already has a statewide mask mandate in place, but Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said the state may soon have to close restaurants and bars, according to The New York Times.
About 33 million people in California are now under a new stay-at-home order that began Dec. 6. It’s the first state to reimpose such an order after the initial rollouts in March and April.
Fauci told NBC News that in the upcoming weeks, “We might see a surge superimposed on the surge we are already in. I don’t want to frighten people, except to say it is not too late to do something about this.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the best way to ensure a safe holiday free of coronavirus exposure is to celebrate at home with the people you live with, and to avoid travel if you can.
People with COVID-19, those who have been exposed to the virus or are awaiting their test results should not participate in any gatherings with others who are not in the same position.
“For the first time in more than 30 years, I’m not spending the Christmas holidays with my daughters” Fauci told CBS News, according to MarketWatch. He said it’s because coronavirus cases from Thanksgiving gatherings are likely to increase right before the next round of holidays.
Some factors to consider during and before Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s: the level of coronavirus spread in your community, exposure during travel, location (indoors versus outdoors) of gathering, duration of gathering, number of people at gathering and the behaviors of people before and during the gathering, such as mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing, the CDC says.
“I think we are going to have to make decisions as a nation, state, city and family, and we’re going to have to do the kinds of restrictions of things we would have liked to have done, particularly in this holiday season, because we’re entering into what’s really a precarious situation,” Fauci told CNBC.
This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Want to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah next year? Then stay home this year, experts say."
