Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Data Shows Americans Couldn't Resist Thanksgiving Travel
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 4 years ago on
December 4, 2020

Share

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Americans couldn’t resist the urge to gather for Thanksgiving, driving only slightly less than a year ago and largely ignoring the pleas of public health experts, who begged them to forgo holiday travel to help contain the coronavirus pandemic, data from roadways and airports shows.

The nation’s unwillingness to tamp down on travel offered a warning in advance of Christmas and New Year’s as virus deaths and hospitalizations hit new highs a week after Thanksgiving. U.S. deaths from the outbreak eclipsed 3,100 on Thursday, obliterating the single-day record set last spring.

Vehicle travel in early November was as much as 20% lower than a year earlier, but it surged around the holiday and peaked on Thanksgiving Day at only about 5% less than the pandemic-free period in 2019, according to StreetLight Data, which provided an analysis to The Associated Press.

“People were less willing to change their behavior than any other day during the pandemic,” said Laura Schewel, founder of StreetLight Data.

Airports also saw some of their busiest days of the pandemic, though air travel was much lower than last year. The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 1 million passengers on four separate days during the Thanksgiving travel period. Since the pandemic gutted travel in March, there has been only one other day when the number of travelers topped 1 million — Oct. 18.

“If only a small percentage of those travelers were asymptomatically infected, this can translate into hundreds of thousands of additional infections moving from one community to another,” Dr. Cindy Friedman, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official, said this week during a briefing.

Wide swaths of the country saw a sudden influx of people arriving from university campuses in the days leading up to the holiday, according to a data visualization of anonymous cellphone data from a firm called Tectonix.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged people to stay home for the holidays, but officials acknowledged that many people would not heed that advice and advised them to get tested before and after trips. Friedman said that this year’s holidays presented “tough choices” for many families.

Adding Another Burden to Health Departments That Are Already Overwhelmed

The travelers included some elected officials who preached against trips. The mayors of Denver and Austin, Texas, faced fierce backlashes for traveling after telling other people to stay home.

Others had no regrets. Trananda Graves, who runs a travel-planning company in Keller, Texas, took a Thanksgiving road trip with her family to Nashville, Tennessee. It was a chance for her daughter to connect with relatives as they shared recipes, and Graves said everyone’s mood was uplifted.

“It was just a break to get away from home,” Graves said. “We work at home, we go to school at home.”

She decided to drive to meet extended family after seeing that flights were crowded and said her family followed guidance to avoid spreading infections.

But infections, even from small Thanksgiving gatherings, have begun to stream in around the country, adding another burden to health departments that are already overwhelmed.

“This uptick here is really coming at a time when everyone’s exhausted,” said Don Lehman, a spokesman for the Warren County Public Health Department in upstate New York.

The county concluded that Thanksgiving gatherings or travel likely caused 40% of the 22 cases it reported in the last two days. That means contact tracers have to figure out where people came from or traveled to and contact health officials in those places. Lehman said it adds “a lot of legwork” to the contact-tracing process.

Graves said she expects an uptick in the travel-planning business around the holidays. Several groups have already inquired about going to Las Vegas to celebrate the end of an arduous year.

And her personal holiday plans? After the Thanksgiving trip, she said, “Now we are considering visiting my mother for Christmas.”

DON'T MISS

CHP Car Struck by Drunk Driver While Investigating Another Crash

DON'T MISS

Fresno Man Ejected From Car Dies Off McKinley Avenue

DON'T MISS

‘Leave It the Way It Is’: Off-Roaders, Hikers React to Proposal to Change 1.4M Acres of Sierra Forest

DON'T MISS

Yankees Retain Cole, Add $36 Million Extension to Keep Ace

DON'T MISS

5 Reasons Early Voting Is Overwhelmed With Falsehoods

DON'T MISS

Christian McCaffrey Returns to Practice for the 49ers From Achilles Tendon Injury

DON'T MISS

California Sues LA Suburb for Temporary Ban of Homeless Shelters

DON'T MISS

You May Have Blocked Someone on X but Now They Can See Your Public Posts Anyway

DON'T MISS

Some Republican-Led States Refuse to Let Justice Department Monitors Into Polling Places

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect in Fatal NW Apartment Shooting

UP NEXT

North Korea’s Long-Range Missile Test Signals Its Improved, Potential Capability to Attack US

UP NEXT

Visalia Rollerblader Suffered Major Injuries After Being Struck by Vehicle

UP NEXT

Fresno County Man Indicted for Possessing Stolen Guns

UP NEXT

On Elon Musk’s X, Dems Are an Endangered Species While GOP Goes Viral

UP NEXT

New Vehicles, Face Paint and a 1,200-Foot Fall: The US Army Prepares for War With China

UP NEXT

CNN Bars Pro-Trump Guest After His ‘Beeper’ Remark to Mehdi Hasan

UP NEXT

LGBTQ Supporters Drown Out Westboro Baptists’ Anti-Gay Message in Fresno

UP NEXT

The ‘Black Insurrectionist’ Was Actually White. The Deception Did Not Stop There

UP NEXT

Washington Post Says It Will Stop Endorsing Presidential Candidates

UP NEXT

What Happened When a Barber Told Trump About His $15,000 Electric Bill

Yankees Retain Cole, Add $36 Million Extension to Keep Ace

12 hours ago

5 Reasons Early Voting Is Overwhelmed With Falsehoods

12 hours ago

Christian McCaffrey Returns to Practice for the 49ers From Achilles Tendon Injury

12 hours ago

California Sues LA Suburb for Temporary Ban of Homeless Shelters

12 hours ago

You May Have Blocked Someone on X but Now They Can See Your Public Posts Anyway

13 hours ago

Some Republican-Led States Refuse to Let Justice Department Monitors Into Polling Places

13 hours ago

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect in Fatal NW Apartment Shooting

13 hours ago

Fresno Murder Suspect Stopped in Las Vegas, Others Wanted

14 hours ago

Trump’s Crowds Are Dwindling as His Campaign Winds Down

14 hours ago

Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on Mexico to Curb Immigration

14 hours ago

CHP Car Struck by Drunk Driver While Investigating Another Crash

A driver suspected of being under the influence crashed into a California Highway Patrol car early Sunday, officials said. Officers were inv...

9 hours ago

A driver suspected of DUI crashed into a parked California Highway Patrol car at a fatal crash scene in Fresno County, sustaining minor injuries and later being cited. (Fresno County SO)
9 hours ago

CHP Car Struck by Drunk Driver While Investigating Another Crash

fresno
10 hours ago

Fresno Man Ejected From Car Dies Off McKinley Avenue

10 hours ago

‘Leave It the Way It Is’: Off-Roaders, Hikers React to Proposal to Change 1.4M Acres of Sierra Forest

New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole throws against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the first inning in Game 5 of the baseball World Series, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in New York. (AP/Ashley Landis)
12 hours ago

Yankees Retain Cole, Add $36 Million Extension to Keep Ace

Voters cast their ballots at Desert Breeze Community Center in Las Vegas during the last day of in-person early voting in Nevada on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. Nearly 75 million people have cast early ballots, making their voices heard amid worry about the process, the outcome and democracy itself. (Bridget Bennett/The New York Times)
12 hours ago

5 Reasons Early Voting Is Overwhelmed With Falsehoods

12 hours ago

Christian McCaffrey Returns to Practice for the 49ers From Achilles Tendon Injury

12 hours ago

California Sues LA Suburb for Temporary Ban of Homeless Shelters

13 hours ago

You May Have Blocked Someone on X but Now They Can See Your Public Posts Anyway

Search

Send this to a friend