Halloween guidelines for NC call trick-or-treating ‘higher risk’ and urge alternatives

State heath officials are strongly recommending parents not send their children door-to-door for trick or treating this Halloween, according to interim guidelines for the holiday.

With local officials still making plans for the annual celebration, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services says celebrations should look very different this year in order to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Traditional, door-to-door trick-or-treating, taking candy from a shared bucket and attending crowded costume parties indoors are all considered higher risk, according to a guidance from the health department released Friday.

The guidance also lists moderate-risk activities, like giving out individually wrapped “goodie bags,” attending outdoor costume parties with masks and social distancing, and tossing candy to children from six feet away.

Lower-risk activities include pumpkin carving and throwing a virtual Halloween costume contest.

“You need to evaluate your own risk as a family and make sure you are doing things to protect yourself,” Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, said Wednesday at a news conference.

“Particularly what I am worried about are parties that are indoors,” Cohen added. “We don’t want to see more than 25 people indoors, 50 people outdoors ... because we have seen over and over that this virus can spread easily in groups of people.”

In both Durham and Raleigh, Mayors Steve Schewel and Mary-Ann Baldwin said they wanted to see the state guidelines before announcing local rules.

“The good news is there will be Halloween, but it may look a little different,” Baldwin said Monday.

In Charlotte, Mecklenburg Public Health Director Gibbie Harris told county commissioners during a Sept. 15 meeting the county was still working on local guidelines.

“The challenge is we don’t know what the next three to four weeks are going to look like, and if schools open up again, we don’t know what the next three to four weeks are going to look like,” Harris said. “That may impact the recommendations around this. ... We should have something out fairly soon.”

Mayors discuss local guidelines

Cohen met with several mayors at a coalition meeting Friday to hear their concerns about Halloween, Schewel said in an interview with The News & Observer.

Although the state offers guidance, Cohen asked the mayors to adopt local guidelines that made sense for their cities, Schewel said.

“Halloween in a small town in North Carolina is very different from a Halloween in Durham, where there are very large gatherings of people in certain neighborhoods,” he said.

It’s too early to tell what guidelines or suggestions Raleigh might make outside the state guidelines, said Baldwin.

“I thought (the state guidelines) were very creative,” she said Tuesday. “I think the good news was they didn’t come back and say ‘No, Halloween.’ I think there would have been a lot of disappointed people out there if that was the guidance. I think the lower-risk activities make a lot of sense.”

Some mayors discussed a possible curfew for the weekend, Baldwin said.

“It’s too early to tell (about a curfew in Raleigh),” she said. “Obviously that is an option and will be considered. Halloween is on a Saturday night this year and when you go back to their concerns — the indoor parties and mass gatherings — we are going to try and avoid that. It’s not worth getting sick over.”

The Raleigh City Council will likely discuss the state’s rules and potential city-wide changes during its Oct. 6 meeting.

Schewel said he will consult neighborhood groups to determine what local measures Durham will take.

“We want people to be able to celebrate Halloween, for sure. Halloween is a wonderful holiday. But we also want it to be done safely,” he said.

He said he will announce his recommendations in early October.

Some neighborhoods draw many trick-or-treaters

Baldwin specifically pointed to the historic Oakwood neighborhood, which borders downtown Raleigh, as a hotspot for trick-or-treaters.

Thousands of children participate in Halloween activities and the city wants to let families and neighborhoods know as soon as possible if there are local rules or guidelines.

Jerry Blow, who lives in Oakwood, emailed the Raleigh City Council asking if there was a policy for neighborhoods.

“Since some neighborhoods only get a few trick-or-treaters, while others get hundreds, a single policy just won’t work,” he wrote in an email to The News & Observer. “We in Oakwood can’t simply put that many small bags of candy on our front porch steps. My humbug self and my wife have decided that, if we can’t treat the kids as we normally do, then we’ll just keep everyone safe and not be among the crowd at all. Bummer!”

Schewel said over 1,500 trick-or-treaters came to his house last year in Durham’s Watts-Hillandale neighborhood.

“In any one time, you know, there are hundreds of people gathered together,” he said. “And so we need to make sure that that’s not happening.”

“But we need to also figure out ways that our children can celebrate Halloween safely,” he added.

This story was originally published September 29, 2020 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Halloween guidelines for NC call trick-or-treating ‘higher risk’ and urge alternatives."