Doctors offer tips to celebrate Christmas safely

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - While Christmas is less than 10 days away, families across the country are trying to find a way to safely celebrate the holidays.

Dr. David Chansolme, INTEGRIS Medical Director of Infection Prevention, says that while we all want to gather with friends and family, the coronavirus is still spreading throughout the community.

"Christmas presents its own set of issues," Dr. Chansolme said.

He stresses that it can be difficult to balance safety with the desire to celebrate with loved ones.

"Theoretically, quarantining for 14 days before having an interaction like that would decrease your risk significantly. Realistically, a long quarantine for everybody at a gathering prior to getting together would probably mitigate the risk of acquiring or transmitting COVID during that setting. But realistically, that's probably not going to happen, particularly the larger your gathering gets. It's much more difficult to police everybody," he said. "That's difficult, but it's a fact."

Dr. Chansolme stressed that even if someone received a negative COVID-19 test, they could still be infected with the virus depending on when they were exposed.

"Testing everybody the day before and then having them come over for Christmas dinner is not a very realistic option either because, unfortunately, the test is only telling you whether or not you have it that day. Say for example, somebody gets a test the night after a big church gathering or something like that, then they can test negative just because they haven't, they can have acquired the virus the night before but they might still test negative because the virus hasn't had time to replicate in their body and to cause a positive test. So just testing everybody right at the point of entry into an event or something like that, we've seen many situations, well publicized, where that doesn't work. So it can be a little bit tougher," Chansolme said.

He says that while the vaccines are making their way through the United States, they will not be readily available for the general public for several months.

If you decide to have people over to your house for a Christmas gathering, multiple small tables are preferable to one large table. Also, you might consider separating those who are the most high-risk from the larger groups if possible.

He also says mask wearing is essential.

"Most of our patients in the hospital caught COVID from somebody close to them," he said.

If you are traveling for the holidays, Chansolme says that you should pay close attention to the level of spread of COVID-19 in the community you are visiting.

"If you do travel, there's a lot of different things to talk about. Probably the safest way to travel is by car. That way you're in a very small group and you're in your own sort of environment. Airports, bus stations, train stations, public transport, those can all be a little bit more challenging because you can't really control how many people are in a terminal; how many people you're around, and how much expose you have in that setting."