SAN DIEGANS TO STAY PUT
Of respondents, 12% say they will travel for Thanksgiving
• Poll shows 84 percent of those surveyed will stay in town for Thanksgiving.
As San Diego County grapples with another surge in COVID-19 cases, a new poll released Tuesday shows that more than eight in 10 residents plan to remain at home over the Thanksgiving holiday
San Diego Union-Tribune/10News poll, conducted by SurveyUSA, shows 84 percent of the 500 adults who participated in the poll plan to stay in town for Thanksgiving.
It’s a heartening statistic for some health experts who worry the holiday season may spread the coronavirus.
“I’d like it to be more, but I think 84 percent is better than it would usually be,” said Davey Smith, chief of UC San Diego’s Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health.
About 60 percent of survey respondents said they had changed their holiday plans due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has sickened nearly 73,000 people in San Diego County and killed 968.
A recent message from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is meant to prevent a holiday surge.
“Travel may increase your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19,” the agency said on its website. “Postponing travel and staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others this year.”
Just 12 percent, some 60 respondents, said they would be traveling out of town for the holidays.
The majority of them, nearly three in four respondents, said they would be traveling by car, which Smith said is typically the safest form of travel during the holidays, especially if passengers are all from the same household.
About one in four said they would be flying to their destination.
Poll data show 46 percent said they would commute more than 100 miles for Thanksgiving. About a quarter of those traveling aren’t going as far — less than 50 miles from home.
The survey also indicates San Diego residents plan to be safer about whom they invite or gather with for Thursday’s festivities and how they’ll purchase holiday gifts later.
About 60 percent said they would be celebrating Thanksgiving with just their household members.
Nearly one in four said they would incorporate one additional household into the mix, and less than 8 percent said their gatherings would include three households or more.
More than 40 percent of respondents said they would be taking special precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as keeping the celebration outdoors or wearing masks except when eating.
“Keeping it outdoors and having as few people as possible is the best option,” Smith said. “You really don’t know how other people are handling their risks for exposure, so whatever risk they bring from the outside is now your risk.”
Even if people are hosting Thanksgiving dinner outside, it’s also a good idea to keep the timeframe of the gathering short, Smith said.
“We’ve found that the more groups linger together, the more comfortable they are getting closer and closer over time,” he said. “So if you’re going to have a group over, maybe think about having it be a shorter time.”
About 450 of the 500 people surveyed said they would begin their holiday shopping this weekend.
Poll data show that half were “very concerned” and 29 percent were “somewhat concerned” about being around big crowds on Black Friday.
Nearly 70 percent said they would avoid shopping on
Thanksgiving Day and 62 percent said they won’t shop on Black Friday.
On the other hand, about one in five said they were planning to shop either Thursday or Friday, and 22 percent were willing to get up early to score Black Friday deals.
The survey found that online shopping will gobble up large shares of holiday sales.
About 45 percent of those surveyed said they’ll shop mostly online, while 22 percent said mostly in stores. About one in five thought they’d split their shopping equally among stores and online.
Smith said that, while a vaccine and additional treatments for coronavirus are just around the corner, those who can should stay at home and stick with their household members this holiday season.
“The vaccines are coming. The treatments are coming,” Smith said. “We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s just going to be a very dark winter.”