A member of the New York Army National Guard is handing out health forms to travelers at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in New York, USA on Thursday, December 24, 2020.
Angus Mordant | Bloomberg | Getty Images
US air travel reached its highest level since mid-March on Saturday, raising fears that the increase in holiday travel in the coming weeks will again lead to an increase in Covid-19 cases.
Although the coronavirus is raging across the country, 1,192,881 people, according to the Transportation Safety Administration, passed through security checkpoints at airports on Saturday.
Air travel continued to decline significantly compared to previous years, but increased during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays despite warnings from health experts and elected officials to limit travel and family gatherings.
Dr Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that the pandemic could probably worsen in the next few weeks as the US experiences a delayed impact from the trip to Christmas.
“That’s what’s happening. It’s terrible, it’s unfortunate, but it was predictable,” Fauci, one of the country’s leading experts in infectious diseases, said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.
December was the deadliest and most contagious month of the pandemic in the US. According to Johns Hopkins University data, there are on average more than 2,600 deaths per day.
Three states have also now found cases of the new, more transmissible coronavirus strain in people with no travel history.
Surgeon General dr. Jerome Adams on Sunday called for Americans to wear masks and social distance to help temper the projected increase in infections.
“What we do now is important,” Adams said in an interview with CNN. “If you gathered outside your household during the holidays without a mask, there are still measures you can take.”
“You can still be self-quarantined. You can still be tested, knowing that more than 50% of the spread is now among people who are asymptomatic,” he added.