Christmas dinner is just around the corner and everyone is hoping to be able to celebrate with at least some of their loved ones and, above all, without anyone getting or spreading the COVID-19 virus.
Doctors and other health workers are publishing lots of tips to keep your, your family and close friends as safe as possible over the festive period. Here are just a few of them:
Right at the top of the list is avoiding all unnecessary contact with other people in the days leading up to Christmas, and always using a mask when in the company of others.
Specifically with the Christmas meal in mind, the Spanish Association of Paediatricians (AEP) has given the following advice to minimise risks: apart from the already well-established recommendations about not mixing with people you don't live with, respecting the safety distance and always using a mask, ventilate your home as much and as often as possible, increase social distancing where elderly people are concerned, do not share food, have the apéritif part of the meal standing up and, wherever possible, out of doors, and do not clink glasses when making a toast.
2020 is going to be a very different year when it comes to celebrating Christmas and people should be as careful as possible when it comes to the safety of the elderly and the very young in the home. In general, "caution and common sense are this year's festive watchwords" said María García-Onieva, secretary of the AEP.
Dr José Manuel Moreno Villares, also of the AEP, recommended that this year "the elderly and the very young should not share the same table unless basic safety measures can be adhered to or unless they usually live together". The recommendation is to separate people into groups and set up smaller tables according to age and family groups, and "to always sit elderly people at the ends of the table".
Shortening the time people are sat at the table for meals is also being advised. People should only be sat close to one another for as long as strictly necessary to finish their meal. Hence the advice to have the starters standing up, with everyone respecting the safety distance between one another; wherever possible, a distance of 1.5 metres between people is recommended around the table, with the person opposite in zig zag.
"It's best if just one person serves the food and that they do so with a mask on. Try to avoid shared platters or eating out of the same dish, and, although it's a sad to have to say this, no clinking of glasses", says Dr Moreno Villares.
Regular handwashing with soap and water is still the order of the day, and we are being reminded to keep bottles of antiviral gel in different parts of the house, especially near the dining table, but well out of reach of small children.
