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While many in the United States celebrated a muted Thanksgiving on Zoom, millions of people have traveled instead, rejecting the advice of officials.
According to data from the Transportation Safety Administration, around 800,000 to one million people passed through TSA checkpoints each day in the days before and after the holidays – far less than the same time last year, but likely much higher than what epidemiologists had hoped to see.
United Airlines spokeswoman Annabelle Cottee said Thanksgiving week was “the busiest since March” for the carrier.
The Americans also took to the roads. The AAA predicted a significant drop in bus, train and cruise travel, but predicted only a modest drop in car travel.
For several days before Thanksgiving, as the number of cases and hospitalizations across the country grew exponentially, political leaders and medical experts warned of the dangers of further spreading the virus by being with other. In November alone, there were more than 4.1 million cases and more than 25,500 deaths.
According to the Covid Tracking Project, there were 91,635 ongoing hospitalizations as of November 28, almost twice as many as November 1, and tripling the number on October 1.
Realizing the emotional resonance of the party, experts tried to string a narrative from these numbers that would convince people of the danger. Their warnings were blunt – sometimes harsh, sometimes passionate.
“Keep rallies, indoor gatherings as small as possible,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease specialist, said on “Good Morning America” last week. By making this sacrifice, he said, “you are going to prevent people from getting infected.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also urging people not to travel. “All Americans want to do what they can to protect their loved ones,” Dr. Henry Walke, CDC head of Covid-19 incidents, told a press briefing.
And while it would have been unrealistic to expect a reluctant public after months of restrictions to universally abide by such recommendations, the consequences of those decisions will begin to show in the weeks to come.
Dr Fauci, during an appearance on the Sunday news program “This Week” said the best solution for Thanksgiving travelers might be “to quarantine yourself for a while.”
Dr Deborah L. Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, said travelers “have to assume that you’ve been exposed and that you’ve been infected and that you really need to get tested next week. She urged travelers to avoid any family member over the age of 65 or with underlying illnesses.
This guidance comes as the CDC plans to shorten the recommended isolation period for those infected. And while it’s too early to know whether vacation travel will affect the spread of the virus, new research suggests people are more contagious about two days before symptoms start and for five days afterward, which means this week will probably be crucial for containment.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday urged residents who had ignored official guidelines and attended Thanksgiving gatherings to get tested.
In anticipation of renewed demand, the city opened 25 new test sites last week. It will also post wait times online at its testing sites, which had seen queues increase as New Yorkers scrambled to take tests ahead of their vacation plans.
The city’s average seven-day positive test rate was 4.03%, Mr de Blasio said, but he warned the data could be skewed as fewer tests were done over Thanksgiving weekend .
“Some of our numbers may be skewed by this,” he said.
The map of the United States shows a country where almost every region is a hotspot. States that were once untouched, like Montana and Wyoming, have reported record-breaking deaths and infections, while states that were hit in the first wave are once again straining themselves.
California became the first state to report more than 100,000 cases in one week on Sunday, according to a New York Times database.
And in New Jersey, hospitalizations have increased 60% in the past two weeks and deaths have increased 78%. Over three days in November, the positivity rate in Newark, the state’s largest city, was 19%.
“We begged people to have a dark, respectful little Thanksgiving,” Governor Philip D. Murphy told Fox News on Sunday. “And I want to yell at New Jerseyens because I think that’s what happened, but there’s a lot of fatigue out there.
Mr Murphy called the next few months “the fight of our lives”, citing advances in vaccines and noting that there was “light at the end of the tunnel”.
And there was something to celebrate in New York on Sunday, at least for some parents, when Mr de Blasio announced he would reopen the city’s public elementary schools, abruptly changing policies after an outcry from critics wondering why gymnasiums and bars stayed open while schools were closed.
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