Your complete guide to celebrating Thanksgiving in the time of COVID-19

Health and government officials are increasingly urging people to stay home and avoid nonessential travel.

Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado urged residents to avoid Thanksgiving gatherings, comparing the holiday tradition to playing "Russian roulette" with family members who are most at risk.

People who are especially vulnerable to severe COVID-19 illness are safest staying home.

"Are you older, are you frail, do you have chronic underlying illnesses?" are the questions to ask, says Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Gatherings are likely safer in areas around the world where infections remain low, although the standard precautions still apply.

For example, in early October Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it might be possible to have a "relatively normal" Thanksgiving gathering in parts of the United States where infections are very low.

Testing can help catch coronavirus infections before travel, Wu said,"but testing is not foolproof."

"It can be falsely negative, or just miss infections you are still incubating," he said. "You could certainly also get infected during travel and potentially infect others after that."

Even if a vaccine were widely available in time for the holidays, it would likely provide partial protection much like the flu vaccine, says Schaffner.

If it's 70% effective, then three people out of every 10 won't be protected, plus a sizable percentage of the population won't have been vaccinated yet.

Driving generally allows travelers more control of their interactions with other people than flying or other forms of communal transportation, the experts say.

The CDC rates "short trips by car with members of your household with no stops along the way" in its "lowest risk" category, next to staying home.

Staying in a rental house or cabin with your immediate household is a lower risk than staying in hotels or someone else's home, according to the CDC's risk assessment.

Schaffner sees hotels as offering more control of your environment than staying in a relative's home, provided you avoid close encounters in elevators and other public areas and skip restaurant dining in favor of takeout or room service.

Even if you do stay in a hotel or rental home, chances are good that you'll want to gather with other households to celebrate the holiday season.

Schaffner has been to relatives' homes during the pandemic and they've been to his, but they've stayed far apart and worn masks and only stayed together for a couple of hours, he says.

For once, electronic devices at the table are something to celebrate. Think about how you will position your laptop or other device so those dining with you remotely can see as many people at your table as possible. This may involve changing up the seating arrangements, putting more people on one side of the table than usual.

Your computer or phone might sit on a buffet, side table or the table itself; move it around as the evening goes on.

If you want to celebrate with family who might be unable to cook for themselves, think about how to get Thanksgiving food to their home. If they are nearby, drop things off well ahead of time; provide any necessary chilling, reheating or serving instructions so they can share the meal with you and not get lost in the preparations.

If your virtual guests are farther afield, consider ordering the meal from a restaurant to be delivered on Thanksgiving Day. Many restaurants will be creating Thanksgiving takeout or delivery menus, and you might be able to get the whole shebang delivered to your loved ones’ door.

To feel more connected, create a menu together with remote friends or family. Choose specific recipes, and at least everyone can be eating the same Parmesan roasted Brussels sprouts and scalloped sweet potatoes.

Let everyone contribute a favorite recipe, perhaps. Then, when someone on the Zoom screen says, “Wow, this is the best green bean casserole ever,” you can heartily agree from your side of the internet.

While many of us take care to set a nice table for the holiday, and perhaps create a seasonal centerpiece, this is a good year to take it up a notch to warm the homes of everyone celebrating with us virtually.

“There will be a lot more attention to detail with things like personalized name tags and fancy pieces of beautiful dinnerware and glasses, and all the bells and whistles of a very special, fancy dinner,” Isom Johnson predicts.

Post- or pre-meal games are a great way to connect and spark conversation. There are personalized, online bingo and card games for a crowd, for instance, and many board games work well over screens. You can have some lively Scattergories games via Zoom if you send everyone the word lists ahead of time, and a few rounds of virtual charades are easy.

Think about coordinating a pre-Thanksgiving non-perishable food drop-off to the local pantry. Everyone can share in the good feelings that come with making sure others have enough to eat.

In a recent travel update, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes it clear: Staying home is the best way to protect yourself against the coronavirus.

If you do travel, the CDC says, sharing a rental home with people from your own household is safer than staying with friends or family who aren't from your household or staying at a hotel where you would encounter more people. The riskiest option, it says, is a hostel or other dorm-like lodging with shared sleeping areas.

Public health experts say staying home is best to keep yourself and others safe from infection. But if you're thinking about flying for the holidays, you should know what to expect.

Flights are getting more crowded and more airlines plan to stop blocking seats to accommodate the growing number of people taking to the skies again.

Not really.

The World Health Organization says the virus can be transmitted in any kind of weather and that there is no reason to believe that cold weather can kill it.