As the family gathering season gets closer, California has put in some mandates that are designed for you and your families safety but has people scratching their heads.
The rules for gatherings:
- Gatherings that include more than 3 households are prohibited. This includes everyone present, including hosts and guests. Remember, the smaller the number of people, the safer.
- Keep the households that you interact with stable over time. By spending time with the same people, risk of transmission is reduced. Participating in multiple gatherings with different households or groups is strongly discouraged.
- The host should collect names of all attendees and contact information in case contact tracing is needed later.
Families must gather outside:
- Gatherings that occur outdoors are significantly safer than indoor gatherings. All gatherings must be held outside. Attendees may go inside to use restrooms as long as the restrooms are frequently sanitized.
- Gatherings may occur in outdoor spaces that are covered by umbrellas, canopies, awnings, roofs, and other shade structures provided that at least three sides of the space (or 75%) are open to the outdoors.
- A gathering of no more than three households is permitted in a public park or other outdoor space, even if unrelated gatherings of other groups up to three households are also occurring in the same park or other outdoor space. If multiple such gatherings are occurring, mixing between group gatherings is not allowed. Additionally, multiple gatherings of three households cannot be jointly organized or coordinated to occur in the same public park or other outdoor space at the same time – this would constitute a gathering exceeding the permitted size.
When it comes to singing:
- There is to be no singing: People who are singing or chanting are strongly encouraged to do so quietly (at or below the volume of a normal speaking voice).
These are just some of the guidelines that have been put in place. For more, see this list.
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