INDIANAPOLIS — The Marion County Public Health Department and the city of Indianapolis announced its public health and safety guidance for celebrating Halloween this year.
The guidance was created in according with current public health orders and risk levels of different activities.
The city's safety guidance is below.
- Wash or sanitize your hands often.
- Clean frequently touched items regularly.
- Avoid close contact – stay at least 6 feet away (3 or more adult steps) from all other people who are not part of your own household.
- Avoid indoor spaces that don’t allow for easy distancing of at least 6 feet between you and others.
- Be sure to correctly wear a face covering when outside around others. A Halloween costume mask is not a substitute for a cloth mask. The department also suggests not wearing a costume mask over a protective cloth mask because it can be dangerous if the costume makes it hard to breathe.
Recommended activities:
- Online parties/contests (e.g., costume or pumpkin carving) and drive-through events and car parades.
- Dressing up homes and yards with Halloween-themed decorations.
- Halloween movie nights with your own household or at drive-in theaters.
- Visiting pumpkin patches or orchards where people use hand sanitizers with 60 percent alcohol minimum before touching pumpkins or picking apples. Masks must also be worn. Attendees should maintain 6 feet of distance from others.
Non-traditional recommended Halloween activities:
- Make fall recipes and crafts as a family
- Participate in drive-through events or contests where individuals dress up or decorate their vehicles which maintaining physical distancing
- Participate in one-way trick-or-treating, where individually wrapped goodie bags are lined up for families to grab while continuing to social distance (such as at the end of a driveway or at the edge of a yard).
- Consider distributing treats other than candy, which parents can then sanitize before giving to kids such as stickers in cellophane packaging, pencils, mini pumpkins, erasers, etc.
Not recommended activities:
- Close contact, door-to-door trick-or-treating or “trunk-or-treating,” and leaving bowls of candy for others to grab because it is difficult to maintain proper social distancing guidelines.
- Haunted Houses are not recommended unless they have entrance controls with sufficient monitors inside the facility at entrance/exit areas to make sure there is no lagging or congregating between participants who are members of different households. Loud voices and screaming can exacerbate the spread of the virus.
- Going on hayrides or tractor rides with people not in your household unless you're able to maintain two feet of distance and wear a mask during the ride.
- Attending indoor Halloween parties, particularly if a party is held in a crowded or poorly ventilated area.
In-person social gatherings or parties of more than 50 people are not allowed, according to the health department's public heath order.
The MCHD said those who feel ill or who have been in contact with someone who is ill, or has symptoms of COVID-19, should stay home.
For questions, contact the Marion County Public Health Department.
