Will Your Kids Trick-Or-Treat This Year? Take VA Patch Survey

VIRGINIA — Virginia residents have missed out on a lot of things thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, from festivals, parties and weddings to in-person school and high school sports. But with the start of the school year and the first day of fall, some are calling for a return to normalcy, even as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out guidelines on Halloween.

This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classified trick-or-treat as a high-risk activity and offered suggestions for low- or at least lower-risk Halloween celebrations. Also on the "high-risk" list are events such as trunk-or-treat, indoor haunted houses, Halloween parties and hayrides with non-immediate family members.

Typically, localities in Northern Virginia do not set a trick-or-treat day, so it's assumed to fall on the evening of Saturday, Oct. 31. The Virginia Department of Health has also issued interim guidance supporting the CDC's recommendations.

"Trick-or-treating involves increased risk for transmitting COVID-19, due to the potential for close proximity to many people and the difficulty for children trick-or-treaters to follow mask use and social distancing recommendations," reads VDH guidance released on Tuesday.

For those who do trick-or-treat, VDH recommends:

• Staying home if have COVID-19 symptoms, have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past ten days, or have been in contact with someone with COVID in the past 14 days. If you are self-isolating or self-quarantining, do not participate in trick-or-treating this year, and look for other virtual options to celebrate.
• Maintaining six feet of distance from others outside your household.
• Washing your hands before trick-or-treating or handing out candy. Hand sanitizer should be used while trick-or-treating or handing out candy when soap and water aren’t available.
• Wearing a cloth mask. Halloween masks may not fit snugly against the face and may not cover the nose and mouth. Halloween masks with gaps and holes do not protect against inhaling respiratory droplets from other people. Wearing a cloth mask under a Halloween mask may make it hard to breathe and is not recommended.
• If you hand out candy, consider setting up an area outside, like a folding table or chairs, to set out candy. Space out the placement of treats so that multiple people do not have to reach into the same bowl or find contactless ways to deliver treats, like a candy chute that is more than six feet long. For trunk-or-treating, create distance between cars by parking in every other space.

What are your plans for Halloween? Will you send the kids trick-or-treating? Will you pass out candy? Take Virginia Patch's survey and let us know. The survey will be open through the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 29, and a result story will follow. This survey is not meant to be a scientific poll due to random sampling and margins of error, but is meant only to gauge the sentiments of our readers in an informal way. If you cannot see the form, click here.