Scrap your Turkey Day travel plans — even if it’s only a short distance, the Centers for Disease Control urged Thursday.
The public health agency released new holiday guidelines warning people to stay home for Thanksgiving festivities — and to mask up at the dinner table — due to sky-high national coronavirus infection rates.
“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,” the agency’s COVID-19 incident manager, Dr. Henry Walke, said during a press conference Thursday. “CDC is recommending against travel during the Thanksgiving period.”
Holiday revelers who opt to have Thanksgiving dinner with folks outside of their households should wear a mask at gatherings, according to the new updated guidelines.
Health officials also urged college kids returning home for a feast to be extremely cautious — since they’ll be dining with people outside of their normal quarantine bubbles.
And anyone traveling on buses or trains should be extra-cautious, the CDC said.
“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,” the new guidelines state.
The warning comes as much of the nation — including parts of the Midwest — cope with soaring COVID-19 infection rates.
“We’re alarmed,” Walke said Thursday, adding that the virus has killed more than 250,000 people in the US. “COVID-19 is turning out to be quite a formidable foe.”
Last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that indoor and outdoor gatherings at private residences in New York would be limited to 10 people — a policy that police in the Big Apple said they would not enforce for family get-togethers.