This party season, you don't have to R.S.V.P., just test

As rising Covid rates collide with the return of holiday festivities, hosts come up with inventive compromises.

Lisa Ludwig knows how to throw a party. Every year around this time, she sets up a heated tent to manage the crowd, hires a D.J., hosts a food and booze buffet, and invites people to eat, drink, and dance the night away.

She has reduced the guest list over the years, but the only time she canceled was in 2020. But when she sent out the invites this year, something nagged at her .

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">"I had a knot in my stomach," said Ms. Ludwig, 61, of Amityville, N.Y. blood work, so I see the results first hand, even before I see it on the news People who tested positive for Covid, or Covid and flu, or flu and VRS. I've had a bad feeling all week."

A day before the party was to be held, Mrs. Ludwig told friends that she was canceling Several had already app élé to say that they could not come because they were sick. One had been exposed to Covid at the hair salon. Another was to remain healthy for an upcoming operation.

"Everyone was relieved," Ms. Ludwig said.

But Ms Ludwig – who herself had a recent bout of Covid and still wasn't feeling 100% – may be an outlier. As the New Year approaches, at the height of the holiday season, people crave human interaction and respite from the pandemic. Companies are bringing remote workers back to the office with buffets and spiked punches.

Nearly 60% of the 252 U.S. companies surveyed in October and November planned to host work groups this year, compared to 27% in 2021 and 5% in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a staffing firm.

Caterers are thriving after a few lean years, said Lena Goldin, a chef in New York who recently cooked dinner for 40 guests at a client's house. She has strict Covid protocols for her staff, Ms Goldin said, but most customers have stopped inquiring about them – although a few families with young children have recently requested that her crew members take rapid tests .

In New York and Los Angeles, major cities where rates of Covid and other respiratory illnesses have jumped, public health officials have issued ominous warnings the last days. But they refrained from explicitly asking residents to change their plans or stay home, suggesting instead that people wear masks in indoor public places or even crowded outdoor spaces.

Many party hosts have taken another approach: they ask guests to take a quick Covid test before walking through the front door.

"I wrote on the invite that the windows are going to be open, and I want people to test before they come," said Dr. Dan Bauman of Manhattan, who hosts an open house on the day of New Year's Eve for the first time in three years and plans to spend the next week baking cookies and making his famous Caramel Cheetos (Yes, you read that right: "People are going crazy about it," he said. .)

In a provocative nod to the pandemic, his invitations im cried his friends to "join me in the super spread of holiday cheer. »

Surprisingly perhaps, many experts endorse rapid tests as a sensible strategy for partygoers. Home antigen tests can detect active infections with a high degree of accuracy, although they are far from foolproof.

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