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State and city governments are warning Americans to downsize their Christmas gatherings, mask up around family members they don’t live with and even shun their unvaccinated relatives just days before the holiday, as cases of the omicron COVID-19 variant spike nationwide.
Some are even imploring citizens to cancel their gatherings altogether.
“The safest option is to gather in-person only with members of your household and to celebrate virtually with other family and friends,” Los Angeles County said in its winter holiday guidance. The county is also telling people to avoid singing indoors, “wear a mask when gathering indoors” and to set tables grouping only people from the same household.
Louisiana’s government issued similar guidance, telling people to “mask indoors when not with your everyday household.” Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser recommended the same, telling people to “wear masks indoors, even at small gatherings.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in October 2021. Bowser is telling D.C. residents to mask up around family members of different households.
(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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The strict advice comes nearly two years into the pandemic and one year after state and local governments went as far as to ban gatherings over a certain number, or of different households. This is despite the proliferation of vaccines and vaccine requirements and the continued wearing of masks by many Americans.
And the advice from cities and states is often conflicting.
Chicago says that “[f]ully vaccinated people can gather indoors with others who have been fully vaccinated without restrictions” while the unvaccinated “should consider not attending gatherings over the holidays.”
But Philadelphia Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said nobody should be gathering for Christmas, regardless of vaccination…
Source : foxnews
