With COVID on the retreat, are Halloween, Thanksgiving and winter holiday gatherings safe?

LOS ANGELES — COVID-19 has scrapped many large holiday celebrations during the last two years.

But with the pandemic in a lull and plentiful resources available to help thwart the worst the coronavirus has to offer, there’s hope that fall and winter gatherings — including Halloween, Thanksgiving and other end-of-year holidays — could be closer to normal for many Californians.

“People should plan on being able to get together with the people that they love,” Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said recently.

But that optimism, as always, is tinted with caution. Families with members who are at high risk of developing severe COVID-19 illness should consider taking some additional precautions, officials say. There’s also the lurking possibility of a resurgence over the colder months, as has happened each of the past two years, and any significant upticks in transmission could warrant additional intervention.

“As we have learned throughout the pandemic, each surge and each variant brings with it unique characteristics relative to our neighborhoods’ and communities’ specific conditions,” including level of immunity, the California Department of Public Health wrote in a statement to The Times. “As we enter the next phase with COVID-19, we will be ready to build on what we have learned over the past two years to meet the COVID-19 challenges that lie ahead.”

First and foremost, officials say now is the time for residents to get both an updated omicron COVID-19 booster — formulated to combat BA.5, the dominant coronavirus strain circulating nationwide — and a flu shot, if they haven’t already.

Since both flu and COVID-19 vaccinations take time to reach full potency, getting the shots now will help ensure optimal protection heading into November and December.

“Because the bivalent booster has great potential for providing significantly increased protection against omicron, which is what’s circulating now, this boost to the immune system has the potential to make a big difference in reducing disruptions and heartache this fall,” Ferrer said.

Ferrer said it is still possible for people to recover from COVID-19 and get reinfected several weeks later.

Among them was Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla, who said he tested positive for the coronavirus in mid-August and then tested positive again in late September. In a statement, Bourla said he hadn’t received his company’s updated bivalent omicron booster yet, since he was following CDC recommendations to wait three months after a prior infection before getting the updated shot.

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