City Of El Paso Officials “No Trick Or Treating For You!”

About a month ago, Los Angeles County said that they were going to ban traditional trick-or-treating because of the number of COVID-19 pandemic numbers but after a huge outcry from parents they walked back the ban and said that they were only going to "suggest" that people refrain from trick-or-treating.

It would be next to impossible to put a ban into place and when I asked an El Paso official, they came back with this answer to whether or not they would be the Ghoul That Stole Halloween. Here's their answer:

"At this point we are monitoring the results from Labor Day weekend before making a decision about Halloween and any potential restrictions."

That was in mid-September but on Thursday afternoon, El Paso Mayor Dee Margo decided to shut down the Halloween fun before it could even get started. You gotta be serious about putting the brakes on Halloween fun by saying that there would be no trick-or-treating on October 1.

The mayor and City-County Health Authority Dr. Hector Ocaranza said there has been a "dramatic increase" in new Covid-19 cases in recent days so "we should not do Halloween" and trick-or-treating would not be allowed this year.

During a news conference, Margo made it very clear where he stands on Halloween. He said kids can still dress up in costumes, but they can't go door-to-door by saying, "We don't want door-to-door trick-or-treating, period."

*massive sad face emoji*

Look, I get it. Halloween on a Saturday? I mean, come on. When was the last time that happened? The last time we had a Saturday Halloween was 2015. The next one will be 2026. It totally sucks that we can't do Halloween big this year, but the plain fact of the matter is El Paso hospitals are seeing increases in patients with coronavirus illness and if we go past the 15% threshold, Texas Governor Greg Abbott might put further closures in place which could mean more jobs lost.

In-classroom learning and school athletic events were also discussed during today's press conference. Ocaranza said he would be meeting with El Paso area school districts on Friday to talk about thresholds for school closings due virus outbreaks and he said districts should use caution about holding and having fans at high school athletic events.

Thanks. COVID. 19.