At the risk of pouring gasoline on a coronavirus fire, millions of Americans flocked to the skies and highways ahead of Thanksgiving, ignoring the fact that they stay home and limit holiday gatherings to members of their own household.
Those who flew witnessed the 2020 landscape at the country’s airports: Plexiglass barriers in front of ID stations, virus testing sites inside terminals, masks in check-in areas and on board planes, and asked passengers to be vigilant on arrival. Their destination.
The number of Americans traveling by air over the past several days has dropped dramatically since the same time last year, when many were squeezed between their holiday plans with skyscrapers, hospitalizations and plenty of infections in the U.S.
Some were fed up with the social distance of more than eight months and decided to spend time with loved ones.
“I think with the holidays and everything, it’s so important right now, especially since the whole epidemic has left people very devastated,” said Cassidy Zerkle, 25, of Phoenix, who traveled to Kansas City, Missouri for a visit. During what is traditionally one of the busiest trips during the year.
He brought a snack and his own hand sanitizer and said the flight was half full. She had a row of seats for herself.
“As long as you maintain your distance you don’t touch the material and you’re sanitizing your hand, people should see their families right now,” he said.
U.S. More than 12.7 million coronavirus infections and more than 262,000 deaths have been reported in India. A new government report on Wednesday said the country was missing eight infections per count. Many people do not get tests, especially if they do not have symptoms.
U.S. More than 1,000 people were hospitalized with an all-time high – COVID-19 – as of Tuesday, pushing healthcare systems to break points in many places, and new cases of the virus are being recorded, on average per day. An increase of over 174,000.
The death toll rose to more than 1,600 a day in May as the crisis eased in the New York area, which was last seen in May.
Disease control and prevention centers and state and local officials have urged people not to travel and to keep their Thanksgiving celebrations small.
“It will ensure that your extended family is to celebrate Christmas and the holidays next year.”
But Denver Mayor Michael Hancock also went to Mississippi to spend Thanksgiving with his wife and youngest daughter, despite sending messages on social media and telling city staff to avoid traveling for the holidays. He apologized, admitting that he went against his public guidance.
“I have made my decision as a husband and father, and to those who are angry and frustrated, I humbly urge you to forgive my decisions, not my head.”
Every day 900,000 to 1 million people passed through U.S. airport checkpoints from Friday to Wednesday, a drop-.f of nearly 60% compared to the same period a year ago. In March, the U.S. After catching the COVID-19 crisis in, they were some of the biggest ones. On Wednesday, more than 1 million people were screened at the airport after the airport opened.
Last year, a record 26 million passengers and crew were flown to the U.S. in an 11-day period around the 26th.
More Americans drive than fly during the holidays, and the AAAA has expressed the possibility that this number is even lower this year. Not to mention how low the Lower Toe Club is.
Many states and cities have taken precautions. Passengers from Los Angeles, either by plane or train, were required to fill out an online form accepting a request to keep people separate for two weeks after arrival in the state of California.
, 0 year old Thea Zunik boarded a flight from New York, New Jersey to Florida to see her 0 year old grandmother and her parents.
“We’ve made all sorts of decisions that it’s dangerous,” Zunik said. “But I wanted to make sure that all my efforts to stay healthy were not undone by the negligence of others. And absolutely, I know I’m taking a risk by flying. I know, but sometimes it becomes necessary. “
She left home alone for days before the trip, got a COVID-19 test that came back negative and made sure to pick up an early and direct flight. She also put on a mask and layered her face on top.
Zunik said, “I felt like an astronaut, to be honest.
Once at the airport, Zunik said, he poorly adhered to mask-wearing, relaxed enforcement of rules, ignoring long lines for luggage checks and social distances in security lines.
Once she was in full flight, occupying the middle seats, she saw passengers eating and drinking by pulling down masks and sitting next to a passenger wearing a blue band asking to call the flight attendant, he said.
“I said to the steward, ‘Hey, the man next to me, is that permission? Because it makes me uncomfortable. ‘They’re like,’ Oh, yeah, good. ‘ But it’s not, “said Zunik. “It simply came to our notice then. And it was built so tightly that it kept falling down the whole flight and it kept messing with it and trying to tighten it and pull it.
Ann Moore, a 60-year-old woman from Chicago, went to Albany, New York, to stay with her daughter for the holidays, and then drove back to Illinois with her. Her daughter is a senior at Dartmouth College College, and Moore and her husband were worried about driving her back on their own.
Prior to the spike, the family planned to hold a Thanksgiving gathering of less than 10 people. But instead she would just be Moore, her husband and her daughter.
“I have friends who are alone. And I’m not inviting them. And I feel bad about that, ”he said. “We’ll walk or take something instead. But yes, the three of us are different. ”
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