OccuSafe Industrial Hygiene Consulting

This past year has been trying for everyone. Those in the safety and health professions have had to take extraordinary actions to keep their employees safe and their businesses running during the pandemic. One further action should be taken during the holiday: Urge everyone to decrease their chances of exposure to COVID-19 by maintaining social distancing, wearing masks, and avoiding locations where people congregate during the holidays. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), travel increases the chances of getting and spreading COVID-19. Traveling to visit family may be especially dangerous if loved ones are more likely to get very ill from COVID-19. The CDC recommends that people stay home and have a virtual get together.

The CDC recognizes that gatherings during the holidays can be an opportunity to reconnect with family and friends, but urges that everyone to consider how holiday plans can be modified to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

For those who host or attend holiday events here are some tips:

• Check the COVID-19 infection rates in areas where attendees live.
• Limit the number of attendees as much as possible to allow people to remain at least 6 feet apart.
• Host outdoor gatherings as much as possible.
• When meeting indoors increase ventilation by opening windows and doors or by placing central air on continuous circulation.
• Require guests to wear masks when not eating or drinking.
• Keep music and noise levels down so people don’t have to shout or speak loudly to be heard.
• Encourage attendees to wash hands often with soap.
• Limit contact with commonly touched surfaces or shared items such as serving utensils.
• Clean and disinfect touched surfaces and any shared items between uses.
• Use gloves when removing garbage bags or handling and disposing of trash and wash hands after removing gloves.
• Ask guests to avoid contact with people outside of their households for 14 days before the gathering.

By taking these actions and others suggested by the CDC, the wave of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths can be stopped. Have a safe and healthy Christmas and, most of all, a better new year.

Be safe, be healthy, be six feet apart!