(NEW YORK) — As Americans continue to navigate the complexities of life during the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC has published a list of guidelines to help facilitate safe gatherings during the fall season. 

The public health organization has sorted its recommendations into the categories of lower, moderate and higher risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19. 

In the lower risk category are activities like carving pumpkins with the people you live with or at a safe distance with neighbors and friends outside. 

Halloween-themed scavenger hunts for children also fall under this category either inside your home or at a distance outdoors. Hosting a virtual Halloween costume contest and a movie night with the people you live with are also on the list.

Under the moderate risk category is what the CDC calls “one way trick-or-treating” where households in the neighborhood place individually wrapped goodie bags outside the home at the edge of the driveway or yard for children to take.

Hosting a small, outdoor costume party where people are spaced more than six feet apart is also considered moderate risk, with the CDC stating that costume masks are not a replacement for a cloth or surgical mask. 

Activities such as traditional trick-or-treating, attending an indoor costume party with a large group of people and visiting an indoor haunted house are all considered high risk activities this Halloween season.

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