Canadians are being warned to hunker down for Thanksgiving. (Unsplash)
Chelsea Alphonso
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in his Speech from the Throne that Canadians likely won’t be gathering for Thanksgiving this year and officials are urging people to rethink the way they celebrate.
As COVID-19 cases on the rise across the GTA, Maja McGuire, the president of Practice Health Check Corp., said it’s time for people to hunker down.
“I think the wise thing right now would be to reassess and really figure out who should be at the table, get a smaller turkey, have some good Zoom calls or Skype calls with families,” McGuire said.
“So there’s still that contact, but really limit how many are in your social circle, because for every individual that you put into your circle, you’re essentially consenting to be in a circle with all the other people that they’re also contacting with outside of that immediate time with yourself,” she said.
For Ajax mom Jennifer Francis-Smikle, this year is all about keeping things small and as traditional as possible.
“In the past at my house, we would actually invite both families, my husband’s family, and my own family, and we would just try to have a big celebration with everybody,” she said.
“But this time, I think that we have to definitely keep it smaller. This year, I will keep it small and go to my parents’ house,” Francis-Smikle said.
She said as sad as it is, she understands the seriousness of COVID-19.
“Everybody misses their old life. But this is the new normal. We’re just doing the best that we can that makes us happy and makes my daughter happy. Especially during this season,” Francis-Smikle she said.
McGuire said while following guidelines is important, it is also important to ensure that masks and social distancing comes into play if the people gathering are outside their regular social circle.
“When you think of your average and typical Thanksgiving gathering, you’re going to have a wide range of ages from the very young all the way to some of our most vulnerable elderly family members,” McGuire said.
“So when we put all of those different generations together and those who are working or going on the TTC every day or whatever it may be you’re putting many, many people at an increased risk,” she said.
McGuire also encourages everyone to get the flu shot this fall.
“The flu shot is definitely something that every individual should highly consider getting this fall,” she said.
“What we don’t want to happen with the influenza is if we end up having a busy influenza season, it’ll put a strain on the healthcare system that is already strained, with COVID,” McGuire said.