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Trick-Or-Treating? Here’s How To Stay Safe

PUBLICDOMAINPICTURES/PIXABAY

As Halloween approaches, you may want to rethink how you celebrate this year. 

Dr. Chris Thompson, an immunologist at Loyola University Maryland, says trick or treating may not be the best of ideas.

He told WYPR’s The Daily Dose there are ways to do it with minimal exposure to COVID-19.  

“I may just leave a box of that candy out on the porch and let kids pick them up as they walk by so that I’m physically distanced from them and they’re physically distanced from me,” he said. 

He also recommends setting aside candy that your kids get, because the virus can linger on the surfaces for a few days.

And whatever you’re dressed up as, you should still wear your mask. 

“Halloween masks or anything that’s not intended to be a filtering mask, should not be assumed to be a filtering mask,” Thompson said.

Thompson added that wearing both types of masks could impede breathing, according to the CDC. 

Sarah Y. Kim is WYPR’s health and housing reporter. Kim is WYPR's Report for America corps member, and Anthony Brandon Fellow. Kim joined WYPR as a 2020-2021 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. Now in her second year as an RFA corps member, Kim is based in Baltimore City.