LAUSR

Although of course not known for certain, it is likely that COVID-19 will still exist in December 2020 potentially impacting a variety of activities relating to Christmas in the USA and worldwide, including parties, shopping for gifts and attending church services. However, let’s not forget Santa Claus. Santa Claus is not young and appears to be a bit overweight, likely from all the milk and cookie treats he consumes each Christmas. Therefore, he may be at greater risk for more severe illness if he develops COVID-19 infection. Does Santa even have a health care provider? Under usual circumstances, Santa Claus would be expected to enter millions of homes to bring the presents the families so badly need and desire (over 36 million homes in the USA alone estimates show [1]). So there are multiple issues and questions. Should Santa enter homes in which a person with COVID19 is residing or should those residences be excluded? Should Santa require documentation of recent negative COVID-19 RNA testing of all persons living in each home to decide if it is safe to enter? If so, how would that information be conveyed to Santa? Would the results be placed on the top of the chimney? How would Santa make it clear that such testing was even required? Even if all persons residing in a home tested negative, however, that does not completely exclude that someone there is infected. Perhaps an even more