- The CDC is recommending against any travel, no matter how limited, for Thanksgiving this year.
- If you are eating Thanksgiving dinner with people you don’t live with, the CDC is recommending wearing masks.
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The US Centers for Disease Control is recommending against traveling, even a short distance, to have Thanksgiving with family and friends outside your household this year.
“We’re alarmed,” Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC’s COVID-19 incident manager said Thursday on a call with reporters, announcing new Thanksgiving guidance released Thursday cautioning against holiday travel during the coronavirus pandemic. “COVID-19 is turning out to be quite a formidable foe.”
Many areas of the country are dealing with unprecedented COVID-19 case numbers and deaths, and the disease — which often spreads quietly from people who show no symptoms — has killed more than 250,000 people across the US so far.
“The tragedy that could happen is that one of your family members, from coming together in this family gathering actually could end up being hospitalized and severely ill and die,” Walke said.
“CDC is recommending against travel during the Thanksgiving period. For Americans who decide to travel, CDC recommends doing so as safely as possible by following the same recommendations for everyday living during this pandemic: wear a mask in public settings, and on public transportation … watch distance by staying six feet away from others not from the same household, and wash your hands often with soap and water or hand sanitizer.”
The CDC said if you do choose to dine with someone you haven't been living with this Thanksgiving, you should wear a mask. College students traveling home for the holidays and their families should be extra cautious, the agency said, since they haven't been living together.
"These times are tough," Walke said. "It's been a long outbreak, almost 11 months now, and people are tired, and we understand that. People want to see their relatives and their friends in the way they've always done it. But this year, particularly, we're asking people to be as safe as possible and limit their travel."