How to enjoy Mother’s Day safely this year

For many families, this Mother’s Day will be different from last year as vaccinations become increasingly available throughout the country and more in-person celebrations are planned. However, it’s important to continue to take appropriate precautions to ensure a safe Mother’s Day weekend.

“While it feels like things are slowly going back to normal, we can’t let our guard down and risk infecting unvaccinated or immunocompromised individuals,” said Dr. Stacey Rose, assistant professor of medicine in the section of infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine.

First, it’s important to remember that someone is only fully vaccinated two weeks after they receive the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or two weeks after one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

According to the most updated CDC guidelines, fully vaccinated individuals can:

• Visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing
• Visit with unvaccinated people (including children) from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing
• Participate in outdoor activities and recreation without a mask, unless they are in crowded settings.

It’s important to continue to wear masks indoors in larger group settings and when gathering indoors with unvaccinated individuals from more than one household. It also is important to continue to wear a mask around unvaccinated individuals who may be immunocompromised or at an increased risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19.

If there are any concerns about exposing unvaccinated or immunocompromised individuals, an outdoor celebration might be best this year. Be sure to wash or sanitize hands before eating.

“As a mom myself, I think that we don’t need a lot of bells and whistles for Mother’s Day to be meaningful,” Rose said. “It’s not really about the Mother’s Day brunch – it’s about the message that you’re sending to your mom by virtue of setting it up.”