With Thanksgiving behind us, many are wondering what Hallowe’en will look like in the midst of a pandemic.
Chatham-Kent’s chief medical officer Dr David Colby says no one can really stop Halloween from happening.
“I’m not sure that we can just simply cancel Halloween, because I think it’s going to happen anyway,” Colby says. “The Grinch tried that with Christmas and it didn’t work. I’m not sure a really restrictive approach is going to work.”
In terms of handing out candy, Colby says COVID-19 isn’t a food-borne infection, so there wouldn’t be any transmission through inanimate objects.
“It’s proximity and direct contact with infected people that is the risk factor, I’m not really worried about Halloween candy as the vehicle for COVID-19 infections,” Colby explains. “For common sense, we’ve had recommendations for safe candy and wrapped goods and that sort of things for many, many years now and I don’t see any need to add to that because of this.”
Guidelines are being drafted at the provincial level, but the standard rules will apply in terms of physical distancing and group gatherings.