With Halloween coming up in a few weeks, guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been released for high and low-risk activities against the spread of COVID-19.

Greene County Public Health Director Becky Wolf says high-risk activities include house-to-house trick-or-treating, trunk-or-treat events, crowded costume parties, hayrides that are not with just your household, indoor haunted houses and rural festivals not in your community that have high levels of community spread of COVID-19. Wolf notes some of the low-risk activities to enjoy the fall time holiday is decorating your home, carving pumpkins as a family, along with these outside-the-box ideas.

“Maybe have like a Halloween scavenger hunt, where the kids are given a list of Halloween-themed things to look at, while they walk around from house-to-house looking at the decorations at a distance. You might do like a virtual Halloween costume contest like something on Zoom or Facetime, or something like that.”   

Wolf recommends for those of legal age to watch the amount of alcohol consumption. She says when people are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the ability to make responsible decisions becomes more difficult.