Sure, you could swear off dating until the pandemic is history. Then again, if you wait for dating to be 100% safe, you could be alone forever.

Like so many things in life these days, pandemic dating is all about balancing risk and reward. Follow these tips to minimize the former, while maximizing potential for the latter.

• Prescreen your dates. Dating expert Andrea McGinty recommends starting with a quick video chat so that you can determine if you actually want to meet your match in person. Use this as an opportunity to ask about their COVID-19 safety habits. If the person isn’t being as careful as you, pass.

• Continue following safety measures. Just because you might be exposed to your date’s germs doesn’t mean you need to expose yourself to everyone else’s, or expose them to yours. So don’t ease up on those safe habits: mask up, socially distance, wash your hands and stay home if you’re not feeling 100%.

• Double mask. Some of the emerging COVID-19 variants are more contagious than the original version of the virus. “Recent guidance from experts suggests that we double or upgrade our masks to ones with two or more layers for better protection than a single-layer mask,” UNLV president Keith E. Whitfield wrote in an open letter to the community. “Double masking not only adds extra filtration but also covers any gaps around a mask with only one layer.”

• Opt for the outdoors. Germs congregate indoors and dissipate outside. So have a picnic, hit up a patio or go hiking.

• Set boundaries. If a potential date refuses to honor your safety requirements, whatever they might be, think of it as a bullet dodged. A person who doesn’t value your feelings of safety and comfort doesn’t really care about you.