The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released seven questions to consider before you travel during the winter holidays, including Christmas.
What does the CDC recommend?
The CDC does not recommend people travel for the winter holidays, insisting on Americans staying home if they can.
- “The safest way to celebrate winter holidays is at home with the people who live with you. Travel and gatherings with family and friends who do not live with you can increase your chances of getting or spreading COVID-19 or the flu.”
The 7 questions
The CDC has seven questions to consider before you travel during the coronavirus pandemic, which includes:
- Are you or someone in your household at risk of getting a severe illness from COVID-19?
- Are cases high in the community at your location?
- Are hospitals in your community or destination overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients?
- Does your home or destination have travel requirements or restrictions?
- Have you had any close contact with people outside your household in the last 14 days?
- Do you plan on travel by bus, train or airplane?
- Are you traveling with someone you don’t live with?
Experts warn over travel
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN he doesn’t want to cancel Christmas. He wants people to be more careful.
- “I know everyone wants to get back to the time when Christmas was a situation where you could have many, many guests indoors, congregating, having fun together,” he said. But “the situation is different now.”
- “As you might imagine, it’s quite concerning to me,” he said. “This type of travel is risky, particularly if people start congregating when they get to their destination in large crowds, in indoor settings. I’m afraid that if, in fact, we see this happen, we will have a surge that’s superimposed upon the difficult situation we are already in. So, it could be a very difficult January coming up if these things happen.”