Highest Air Traffic Since COVID-19 Pandemic Began Fuels Fears of a New Surge

Hospitals and airports are seeing record numbers of people, numbers that do not bode well for the pandemic. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, California hospitals, especially ICU units, are straining under the load of COVID-19 patients as the state braces for a further surge from Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. And experts warn that the record number of travelers reported by the Transportation Security Administration who traveled through U.S. airports could contribute to the post-holiday surge of cases.

According to The Hill, there were 1.3 million travelers documented on January 3, which marked the busiest day for airports since the pandemic began. Simultaneously, Johns Hopkins University reported there were more than 20 million cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and that the numbers continued to climb. Public health officials are asking Americans to toe the line when it comes to taking precautionary measures and stay home to stay safe.

“What we do now matters. If you gathered over the holidays outside of your household without a mask, there are measures you can take right now,” Surgeon General Jerome Adams said, according to The Hill. “You can still self-quarantine. You can still get tested knowing that greater than 50% of the spread is now among people who are asymptomatic. You can still wear a mask and wash your hands and watch your distance. If we do that, we may be able to temper this surge.”

According to CNN, Adams said that actions we take now may help us surmount this current surge of cases.