Americans will neither have a merry Christmas nor a happy New Year as COVID-19 infections caused by Thanksgiving Day gatherings will manifest as new cases, hospitalizations and deaths at these erstwhile happy times.
Millions of Americans disregarded urgent pleas by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health authorities and traveled to visit loved ones during Thanksgiving Day last November 26.
Of this total, three million were recorded at U.S. airports from Nov. 20 to 22. All told, more than 9 million Americans traveled to and from their destinations during Thanksgiving.
Authorities said this was the biggest number of people at U.S. airports since mid-March when the COVID-19 pandemic was still getting started. Millions more traveled by cars and other motor vehicles.
All this in a week that will cap a month where more than four million cases will be recorded in November alone. Total cases stood at more than 4.02 million from Nov. 1 to 28.
The U.S. reported 205,557 new cases Friday, the first time cases per day have exceeded 200,000. In addition, there were 176,600 new cases and 1,283 deaths on Saturday, said the CDC.
This toll brought to 1.16 million the total number of new cases over the past seven days. Total cases in the U.S. now stand at more than 13 million, along with 264,000 total deaths.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said this enormous migration means the U.S. is heading into a difficult period even as indicators continue to worsen.
He said restrictions and travel advisories will be necessary for the Christmas holiday season to curb a further and unwanted spread of infections.
He also said Americans should take steps to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus to help overwhelmed hospital systems being inundated with patients, Hospitals are also running short of medical staff.
"What we expect, unfortunately, as we go for the next couple of weeks into December, is that we might see a surge superimposed on the surge we are already in," said Fauci in an interview with NBC. "I don't want to frighten people, except to say it is not too late to do something about this."
Fauci urged Americans to be careful as they return from Thanksgiving and wear masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
"I think we are going to have to make decisions as a nation, state, city and family that we are in a very difficult time, and we're going to have to do the kinds of restrictions of things we would have liked to have done, particularly in this holiday season, because we're entering into what's really a precarious situation," noted Fauci.
