ANDERSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Despite the pandemic, many communities are still having trick-or-treating for Halloween, so some local doctors weighed in on ways to help keep your kids safe if they are going trick-or-treating Saturday night.
The Centers for Disease Control said door-to-door trick-or-treating is not a good idea this year; however, doctors agree that if you do go trick-or-treating in neighborhoods, there are precautions you should follow in order to keep you and your children safe.
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Dr. Robert Frenck with the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center suggests people give out candy by placing it in children's bags and not allow children to reach into a candy bowl. Frenck also suggests not walking in large groups from house to house.
"If you can maintain social distance and you're moving around outside, it's okay," said Dr. William Zacharias, ICU doctor and assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Other suggestions doctors have is that children should wear masks either as part of their costume or underneath it, and children should wait to eat their candy until they get home in order to wash their hands more.
One thing many doctors agree on, though, is that there is no need to wash or disinfect candy wrappers since COVID-19 can't live on surfaces for very long.
Despite these precautions, though, Zacharias suggests doing Halloween a little differently.
"Most of us should buy candy for our own kids, eat our candy in our house, have them put on their costumes and enjoy themselves, but not necessarily have to go to everybody on our street," he said.
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