Although the novel coronavirus has proven it has no plans of slowing down, that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun while maintaining precautions that will protect you and your loved ones. Regardless of how you are celebrating our nation’s independence, it’s important to follow some safety tips and guidelines that I have to offer:
Food & drinks
While preparing food, it’s important to keep all foods at its proper temperature to avoid any food spoiling, especially meats or fish. To avoid cross-contamination of germs or a virus do not share food and drinks. If you’re celebrating in a small, socially distant gathering, use clean personal utensils to serve themselves to avoid touching the same serving utensils.
Avoid large groups of people
It’s important to practice social distancing from large crowds and if you’re hosting a small group, it’s recommended to limit your headcount to 10 or less to help control who you’re exposing yourself and others too.
Enjoy the outdoors
Although it’s summer time in Hawaii and Florida, it’s recommended that you celebrate outdoors as the likelihood of contracting the virus outside compared to indoors is significantly less. Get your family together and head to Miami Beach, Clearwater Beach, or Waikiki, wherever you choose to celebrate outside, it’s critical to drink plenty of water in order to avoid dehydration.
While you’re outside celebrating, it’s easy to lose sight of children so it’s highly recommended that parents and those around supervise children at pools and lakes and beaches at all times. A recommended practice is to designate one adult to observe children in the water and if that adult needs to step away for any reason, they assign another to take over.
Additionally, wearing proper sun protection including sunscreen and face coverings is highly recommended when celebrating outside. It’s common for cases of sun poisoning to increase around this time of year so to avoid this, wear a hat, sunglasses, and reapply sunscreen with a high SPF throughout the day.
Enjoy the celebration from home
Ultimately, if you have a chronic illness or live with someone who does, it’s highly recommended that you stay home. There are several ways to stay entertained at home, you can always watch your favorite movie "Predator", take a virtual tour of the Smithsonian or visit via the Internet one of our 31 national parks. It is not worth leaving the house and catching or spreading the coronavirus.