6.34 million people flock to the airport before Christmas in the U.S.

1.2 million passengers boarded on the 23rd…Best Thanksgiving Day record breaking
85 million people will travel by car during the year-end and New Year holidays
Health authorities appealed to “restrict travel and stay home”

[이미지출처=AP연합뉴스]

[아시아경제 이현우 기자] It is reported that travelers who visited the airport in the U.S. ahead of the Christmas holiday reached the highest level since the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19). US health officials are warning that the rapid spread that emerged immediately after the Thanksgiving holiday could be reproduced.

According to CNN, on the 24th (local time), the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced that the previous day, 1,911,123 people from all over the United States passed through airport checkpoints and went on a trip. This is the highest number of airport users per day since the start of the Corona 19 incident this year. The previous record was 1,117,609 on the 29th of last month, the Sunday immediately after Thanksgiving. The number of airport users has already exceeded 1 million on the 18th, a week before Christmas, and over 900,000 to 1 million people use the airport every day for the next 6 days, and the cumulative number of travelers is about 6.34 million.

[이미지출처=로이터연합뉴스]

It is estimated that the number of people moving through automobiles will be much higher. Earlier, the American Automobile Association (AAA) predicted that 85 million people would travel by car during the year-end and New Year holidays from the 23rd to the 3rd of next month.

The U.S. health officials started vaccinating Pfizer on the 14th and Modena vaccine on the 21st, but they are appealing for refraining from traveling on Christmas holidays and staying home, saying that it takes a lot of time to achieve group immunity through the public vaccination. However, CNN pointed out that the public is turning away from this.

The United States has more than 18 million confirmed cases in the aftermath of Thanksgiving trips and meetings at the end of last month. It is expected that this Christmas and holiday trips and gatherings will bring another aftermath. “We should minimize Christmas travel and avoid indoor meetings,” said Anthony Pouch, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “Until the vaccine exerts a positive effect on the prevention of coronavirus, we must all observe public health rules.”

Reporter Lee Hyun-woo [email protected]