COVID-19 and Holiday Message for Patients

To: Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center Patients

This holiday season, we need your continued help to stop the spread of COVID-19. We are committed to your health and ask that for your safety and the safety of our community, you please stay home during the holidays.

This year, with COVID-19 rapidly increasing throughout our country, we all need a different winter holiday plan. While we would like to celebrate the winter holidays with family and friends, this year, we need to be extremely cautious and stay away from those outside our immediate household. Consider “seeing” family and friends over video feeds (i.e., Zoom or FaceTime) or similar technology, not in person. If you must be with people outside of your household, we recommend you stay outdoors, distanced by at least 6 feet, masked at all times, and not eating together. If you remove your mask or others remove theirs, it puts you at very high risk for disease transmission. If you do intend to travel, be aware that it may be challenging to access healthcare. Visit the CDC website for additional information about the holiday season. We can all do our part to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities.

The holiday season, however, does bring good news. With the advent of several promising COVID-19 vaccines, we have good reason to be hopeful as we move into the new year. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has developed a phased approach for vaccine distribution schedule. You can learn more by visiting mass.gov.

In addition, Massachusetts General Hospital will be posting the latest vaccination guidelines on our website, www.massgeneral.org, and your Mass General Cancer Center care team will provide details on a vaccine distribution plan to eligible patients as soon as this information is available.

In the meantime, please remember that it is very important that you continue to wear a mask when you are outside of your home, follow strict hand hygiene practices by washing your hands frequently with soap and water and using hand sanitizer, and please continue to practice social distancing. These guidelines will remain in place for some time even after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

May you all have a healthy and safe holiday season.

Best regards and stay safe,

Mass General Cancer Center