CDC Has Classified Halloween Trick-or-Treating as ‘High-Risk’

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued its first guidelines for celebrating Halloween amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CDC has listed a number of ways to celebrate the holiday and categorized them as low, moderate or high-risk activities.

“High Risk” Halloween activities:


  • Traditional trick-or-treating
  • Crowded indoor costume parties
  • Indoor haunted houses
  • Hayrides or tractor rides with people not in a family or who don’t live together

“Moderate Risk” Halloween activities:

  • One-way trick-or-treating, with bags lined up for families outdoors, and social distance maintained
  • Costume parties outdoors where people can remain six feet apart
  • Open-air, one-way, walk-through haunted forest visits
  • Visiting pumpkin patches or going apple picking, while maintaining social distancing, wearing masks, and using hand sanitizer

“Low Risk” Halloween activities:

  • Carving and decorating pumpkins with the family or members of a household
  • Decorating a house, apartment or living space
  • Having a virtual Halloween costume contest
  • Having a family or household Halloween movie night

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