Public Health Officials Urge Safe Thanksgiving Planning

With Thanksgiving three weeks away, public health officials are urging families to celebrate safely.

Officials are particularly concerned that holiday gatherings, coupled with cooler weather, could help bring on another viral surge, said Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer.

“Another important strategy for preventing a significant surge this winter is to plan for safe holiday gatherings,” Ferrer said.

Ideally, everyone eligible for vaccination should be fully vaccinated when attending a gathering, Ferrer said.

“If this isn’t possible, we do recommend staying local until everyone who can get vaccinated is fully vaccinated, and if possible, to gather outdoors,” she said.

“Keep gatherings small, and if high-risk or unvaccinated people are present, including older adults and people with weakened immune systems, wear face masks indoors when not eating or drinking, and outdoors if it’s very crowded,” Ferrer continued.

She also advised people to keep distance from non-household members while eating, especially if doing so indoors.

“None of us want to end up sick, hospitalized, or needing to quarantine or isolate over the December holidays because of exposures we had over Thanksgiving,” Ferrer said.

Los Angeles County saw 1,829 new infections and 12 deaths on Thursday, raising the county totals to 1,498,393 cases of the virus and 26,695 fatalities, Ferrer said.

Countywide, 662 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19, she added. Thursday’s daily test positivity rate was measured at 1.6%.

The Pasadena Public Health Department documented 10 new infections and no deaths on Thursday. The city has seen a total of 12,596 COVID-19 cases and 363 fatalities.

The average number of daily infections over the prior week stood at 12.1, according to city records.

Pasadena Unified School District officials reported 26 infections among students and five among teachers over the prior week.

California Department of Public Health officials reported 5,608 new cases of COVID-19 and 113 fatalities on Thursday, bringing the statewide pandemic total to 4,680,273 infections and 71,759 deaths.

The state’s weekly positivity rate increased slightly to 2.4%, according to CDPH data.

As of Thursday, L.A. County accounted for 32% of California’s COVID-19 infections and 37% of the state’s fatalities.