(Reuters) - On a typical Halloween, Sarah Schwimmer would answer her door and put candy in the outstretched hands of costumed trick-or-treaters, but this year she will be shooting their sweets through a 10-foot-long (3-meter-long) pipe rigged up as her COVID-19 socially distanced delivery system.“The kids - everything has changed for them, so anything we can do to keep that joy is important,” said Schwimmer, 54, of Lawrenceville, New Jersey. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised against traditional American Halloween activities that are considered “high risk” for COVID-19 infection, including haunted houses, hayrides with anyone not in your household and “direct contact with trick-or-treaters.” Screaming - in glee or fright - is risky behavior during the Oct. 31 holiday that celebrates ghosts and goblins, the CDC noted, advocating social distancing and wearing a mask to lower the risk of spreading the respiratory virus. Outright bans on trick or treating have been declared in cities as large as Los Angeles and towns as small as Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Even the headless horseman’s annual ride through the village of Sleepy Hollow, New York has been canceled. The traditional event commemorates Washington Irving’s classic 200-year-old short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”