Mayor Considering Halloween Guidance After CDC Identifies Door-to-Door Trick-or-Treating as “High Risk”

By Wendy Osher

With Halloween being marketed at retailers and costume hunting underway, we asked Mayor Victorino what Maui can expect for the upcoming holiday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already released its guidance for the upcoming Halloween holiday, identifying door-to-door trick-or-treating and trunk-or-treating as “high risk” activities.  Meanwhile, visiting pumpkin patches is listed as a moderate risk activity by the CDC.

Mayor Victorino said he is currently working to establish guidance for Halloween.  “I have some plans on hold right now that people have brought to me in regards to having various areas for which people would come to in a staggered manner–almost like what we had [with] drive-through graduation.”

He said the idea is to possibly have drive-through trick-or-treating where “kids would not be roaming the streets” and “families would not be going out and passing out candy.”

“Maybe where we could have certain areas designated for trick-or-treating where people could come in, pick up a couple bags of candy and move on.  And maybe even have stations,” he said during an afternoon press conference in response to Maui Now’s inquiry.

“So we’re working on some ideas; but what we really don’t want to do is congregate and get big crowds again because this is not the time we want to find out that we get another big outbreak and have it spread throughout the County of Maui,” said Mayor Victorino.

The CDC provided guidelines for Halloween, separating different types of activities by their level of risk.  “If you may have COVID-19 or you may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, you should not participate in in-person Halloween festivities and should not give out candy to trick-or-treaters,” the CDC advises.

The CDC released a list guidelines for the upcoming holiday, providing a list of lower risk activities as an alternative to traditional trick-or-treating, including: carving or decorating pumpkins with member of your household, or doing so outside at a safe distance with neighbors or friends; decorating your house or living space; doing a Halloween scavenger hunt where children are given lists of Halloween-themed things to look for while they walk outdoors from house to house admiring Halloween decorations at a distance; having a virtual Halloween costume contest; having a Halloween movie night with people you live with; having a scavenger hunt-style trick-or-treat search with your household members in or around your home rather than going house to house.

Moderate and high risk activities identified by the CDC are posted here.