Experts rate the risk of outdoor activities

According to Dr. Emily Landon, a hospital epidemiologist and infectious diseases specialist at University of Chicago Medicine, the best way to calculate the risk of transmission when interacting with others is to  “Always choose outdoors over indoor, always choose masking over not masking and always choose more space for fewer people over a smaller space.”

Experts agree that the more time you spend indoors with people, the higher the risk of possible transmission.

Dr. Judith Guzman-Cottrill, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Oregon Health & Science University suggests that a BYOB backyard gathering with one other household is a low to medium risk situation. To make things even safer in this scenario, Dr. Andrew Janowski, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Washington University in St. Louis suggests to avoid sharing food, drinks or utensils.

Low risk activities include: spending the day at a beach or pool, camping, going to a vacation house with another family, staying in a hotel and exercising outside.

Medium to high risk activities include: going to nightclubs, shopping at a mall (but this varies depending on the situation), attending an outdoor celebration such as a wedding or funeral with more than 10 guests and getting a haircut.

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