SAN ANTONIO – As we enter the holiday season, UT Health San Antonio is offering guidelines for how to properly and safely celebrate.
Before students in the North East Independent School District were released for the Thanksgiving break Friday, they watched a video featuring Dr. Tess Barton of UT Health San Antonio’s Pediatric Infectious Disease department explaining how Thanksgiving needs to be a bit different this year.
“Continue being safe, have fun, eat pie,” Barton joked in the video.
But Barton’s message is also very serious.
With the current surge of cases nationwide and in Bexar County, residents are urged to make some adjustments before getting together for the traditional Thanksgiving meal.
For example, the traditional breaking of the turkey wishbone can be safely done if hands are washed and masks are worn.
“I think if everyone’s hands are clean and there’s just one person on one side of the wishbone and one person on the other side of the wishbone,” Barton said.
Food handling is another story.
Barton thinks the dinner table should not include shared dishes.
“Rather than having sort of the buffet style or where the things are passed around the table from person to person, having one person do the serving is better,” she said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends gatherings consist of no more than six people from two different families, and that the dinner be held outside if at all possible. According to the weather forecast, an outdoor dinner should be no problem as Mother Nature plans to grace South Texas with plenty of sunshine and mild temperatures Thursday.
Colleges and universities are advising students to get tested for coronavirus before returning home so that any holiday gathering or reunion be held in accordance with quarantine rules, if needed.