CHICAGO – Illinois is facing a spike in COVID infections and hospitalizations, prompting a public relations effort to keep people home and away from contact with non-household family and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday next week. The Illinois Manufacturers Association, the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, the Illinois State Medical Society and the Illinois Health and Hospital Association sent out a poster rating levels of behavior as "safe," "less safe" and "unsafe."
The point to the Center for Disease Control's recommendations as their guidelines:
"The safest option is to avoid travel, which increases risk of exposure, and limiting gatherings to one household," the group said in a press release Friday. "If gatherings will include people from more than one household, it is advised to limit the length of time spent together, and to keep festivities outside instead of indoors, which pose more risk. Attendees from different households should stay at least six feet apart, wear masks, wash hands and follow all other local health guidelines. The CDC advises that alcohol consumption may alter judgement and make it more difficult to adhere by proper safety measures."
In other words, stay home on Thanksgiving 2020.
