Throughout this year, many people in Los Angeles have had events, activities, and holiday plans pushed back or downright canceled due to the ongoing spread of COVID-19.
To further expand the list, the Los Angeles Department of Public Health recently announced that Halloween would not be celebrated this year due to the high risk of people getting infected by the virus.
Some of the guidelines that they’ve talked about issuing are as follows:
- No Trick or Treating, saying it was difficult to maintain the six-foot social distancing.
- No trick or treating for candy while in cars because it may cause traffic or an accident could happen like a car crash or a hit pedestrian.
- No house parties, as well as parties both inside and outside of parks are prohibited.
- No carnivals, live entertainment, festivals, and haunted houses.
(Update: LA County has backtracked on their trick or treat cancelation, as of Sep. 9, but have made a clear point to strongly advised against it.)
There are plans to do drive in haunted houses, though how it’ll work is still undetermined and could lead to some accidents or car crashes.
Although this may upset many kids who can’t be able to trick or treat or haunted house owners who are trying to make money off of their attraction, others, however, would see this as a good thing for those who are in fear of the virus infections continuing rise in the country.
This reasoning for the cancellation of Halloween is well-founded, if disappointing, as we continue to battle this ongoing pandemic. Hard choices must be made.
The virus can affect kids and students in the area, making them carriers of the disease which they may pass along to their parents or other, vulnerable family members.
These restrictions will also maintain the social distancing guidelines, preventing contact between strangers. On the bright side, parents won’t be spending tons of money on candy bags.
It also helps lower the hit and run rates that may occur if driver don’t see trick or treaters in the dark. Many times each year, there is always an incident regarding a person getting hurt or worse due to a car not seeing the person, with them driving off out of fear or selfishness.
Having kids and parents staying home this year can help lower the number of accidents that may happen, saving lives in a different way.
Though many people aren’t going to listen to these guidelines and will go out and have parties anyways, it’s simply an issue that shows how entitled people can be nowadays.
Too many people believe that the virus isn’t an issue and that don’t take it seriously, making this pandemic worse for the US.
Those that understand the seriousness of our situation must, even reluctantly, follow these guidelines for our sake and even for the disbeliever’s sake.
Whatever happens on Halloween, officials worry that celebrating the holiday may cause cases to rise again and residents shouldn’t take part in the holidays, staying home instead, to prevent our community from having to stay home for much, much longer.
