Air Travel Hits New High with 1.3 Million Passengers on Sunday
This time of year is usually busy with travel of all kind, and especially air travel. But this is not a normal year. The Covid-19 pandemic has been going on since early in the year, affecting every aspect of everyday life for Americans and everyone else around the world.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to recommend postponing travel and staying home, as this is the best way to protect yourself and others this year from the Covid-19 virus. While travel is still down compared to last year, Sunday marked a new post-March high for air travel.
On December 27, a total of 1,284,599 people passed through TSA checkpoints. That beats the TSA’s previous record of 1,191,123, set Dec. 23. On Saturday, 1,128,773 people went through TSA security checkpoints.
Sunday’s number are just at 50% of the same weekday last year, and we have now had several counts of 1 million or more recently. As a reminder, the lowest point in air travel was back in April 14 when just 87,534 passed through TSA checkpoints.
The CDC recommends that people who have traveled over the holiday season get tested for Covid-19 one to three days before their trips. Testing should also be done three to five days afterwards and quarantine is suggested at least a week. Those who do not get tested should reduce nonessential activities for 10 days after travel, the CDC says.
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I don’t mean to be nitpicky but A beter headline might “Air Travel Hits New Pandemic High with 1.3 Million Passengers on Sunday”. A day that is less than 50% of last year is not a record in my book. I get your point though.
Got my first vaccine shot on Christmas Eve. It’s like having a superpower no one knows about. Being able to walk into a covid cohort next week with substantially less anxiety will be a welcome feeling. (The immune response develops 7-14 days after the 1st dose). Hopefully we’ll see a marked drop in cases in time for Christmas 2021.