A safer spooky season

Professor provides tips for celebrating Halloween

Sol Garcia | THE RIDER

With COVID-19 and Hidalgo and Cameron counties’ ban on certain traditional Halloween activities, such as trick-or-treating and haunted houses, celebrating the spooky season looks different this year. 

Tania Garcia, a mass communication senior, said she usually celebrates Halloween with friends from outside the Rio Grande Valley, but this October that is not an option. 

“[My friends] would normally either come down or [I] would go out there and visit, just pretty much go out and have fun, and go to parties and dress up,” Garcia said. “This year, because of COVID, we’re not traveling.” 

While she may not be able to see her long-distance friends, Garcia will still celebrate Halloween with her immediate family.

She and her family will perhaps have a small cake, an array of candies and dress up within their household, “So that we can have fun with each other,” Garcia said. 

They will ensure they stay safe by wearing facial coverings, having hand sanitizer readily available and other regular precautions, she added. 

Garcia said she has always looked forward to Halloween, but now it is more important than ever to celebrate it, not only because of the pandemic, but also because of mental health issues that can arise from consistently staying home.

“Because of everything happening, it’s most important now to be able to have fun, or at least pretend for one day that everything is at least somewhat OK,” she said. 

Jose Campo Maldonado, an assistant professor and director of infection surveillance for the UTRGV School of Medicine, advises students who will celebrate Halloween with others to hang out outside and avoid crowded spaces, such as parties. 

“You need to be aware that if you’re in a closed environment, especially in a place where people are crowded, [you] will be more [at] risk of virus transmission as compared [to] doing something outdoors,” Campo Maldonado said.

While COVID-19 is still prevalent, that does not mean the community should stop celebrating Halloween. However, community members should engage in low-risk activities instead of high risk, he said. 

“I don’t think that the fact that COVID-19 is going around means that all type[s] of celebrations or activities around this theme, the Halloween theme, should necessarily stop,” Campo Maldonado said. “There are some safe activities that can be done at home.” 

Low-risk and safe activities include carving pumpkins with your family or viewing decorations with your family and neighbors, he said. 

“Those types of activities can be helpful [and] are not as risky as picking up candies at someone else’s home, where you don’t know if … dividers are in place,” Campo Maldonado said, referring to trick-or-treating, which local counties have banned.

He recommends students visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website to learn about more low-risk Halloween activities. 

CDC recommendations include:

–a virtual Halloween costume contest

–a Halloween movie night with your household

–an in-house scavenger hunt-style trick-or-treat search. 

If students celebrate with neighbors or other people who are not part of their household, they should continue to follow basic safety precautions, such as wearing a facial covering, washing their hands, keeping a safe distance and limiting the group size, Campo Maldonado said. 

“There are restrictions, sometimes by county, of how many people can be together for an activity,” he said. “I would advise people to make sure that they know that for your county, but numbers that have been used to be reasonable, for example, [are] 10 people because it’s easier to control the distance [between each other].” 

Many people may believe if they test negative for COVID-19 before meeting up with others, they are safe from the virus, creating a false sense of security since they could be infected after the test and then transmit it to others, Campo Maldonado said.  

“You think that it’s safe,” he said. “You think that you don’t need a mask, you think that you don’t need to wash your hands, you think that it’s fine to not keep your distance.” 

Alonso Gonzalez, a computer engineering sophomore, said he does not typically celebrate Halloween and he does not plan to do so this year either. He does not believe his friends will either because of COVID-19.

“It’s not a good idea to be … hanging out with people,” he said. 

For those who will, however, Gonzalez said he advises them to follow healthy guidelines and act responsibly because of the pandemic’s negative impact. 

“This pandemic is hurting a lot of people and we need to do our best to stop it,” he said.