CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Locals in the Coastal Bend are preparing for the Halloween festivities, which include buying their tickets for haunted houses.
"We want to make sure everyone can come out, enjoy a great evening get into the Halloween spirit and stay safe," said Amanda Taylor, the membership coordinator at the USS Lexington.
After the Centers for Disease Control Prevention posted their guidelines for the holiday, many people wondered how attractions like the haunted houses would adapt.
"We are wearing masks, we're requiring guests to wear masks, our actors will be wearing masks as well," said Taylor.
The USS Lexington is prepared to welcome visitors to the annual "Haunting On The Blue Ghost." They've had to make changes like only allowing customers to purchase tickets online, prior to arriving; as well as limit groups to 10 people, and sanitize after each group finishes. However, even with the extra safety precautions taken, the CDC still has indoor haunted houses listed as medium to high risks for residents and local public health officials agreed.
"If it was for public health, we'd probably be saying try to cancel these, we're talking one year. We understand everyone's trying to have fun and make money, but we also understand the safety part of making sure you're able to stay well, not have a fatality from being at a Halloween event," said Annette Rodriguez, the Nueces County Corpus Christi Health Director.
Rodriguez said even though she understands places like the Lexington will be implementing additional precautions, there will still be visitors from out of town travelling to the destination and more face-to-face interactions become a concern.
"We just don't want to start seeing spikes in our numbers," said Rodriguez.