'It might get worse:' health officials warn of post-holiday virus surge
Nearly 10 million Americans traveled in the past 10 days, despite pleas from public health officials to stay home. Travel hit record-highs during the pandemic, even though cases are surging more now than ever before.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said that America has reached a very "critical" point in the pandemic.
"As we get into the next few weeks, it might actually get worse," Fauci said.
More than 616,000 people were screened at TSA checkpoints across the country on Christmas Day alone, and hundreds of thousands more traveled in the days leading up to the holiday. Numbers are expected to climb again this weekend.
The busiest travel days at RDU are expected to be the two Sundays after Christmas -- Dec. 27 and Jan. 3 -- with more than 18,400 travelers expected each day.
Health officials are encouraging those who traveled to get tested for coronavirus three to five days after traveling. Even if you get a negative test result, officials urge to stay home for seven days to limit the spread of coronavirus. Anyone who tests positive should isolate themselves.
Out of 20,000 North Carolinians who signed up for a survey with the COVID-19 Community Research Partnership, half said they traveled or gathered with people outside their household at Thanksgiving. Among those, only 51% percent said they wore a mask and only 13% said they got tested before they went.
"When you're dealing with a baseline of 200,000 new cases a day and about 2,000 deaths per day, with the hospitalizations over 120,000," Fauci said, "We are really at a very critical point."
December has been the nation's deadliest month since the COVID-19 pandemic's start -- with more than 63,000 Americans lost to the virus in the past 26 days. More than half a million coronavirus cases have been reported in North Carolina since the pandemic began. On Sunday, 61 more people died of the virus in our state. More than 3,000 North Carolinians are currently hospitalized with the virus,
With New Year’s Eve just around the corner health officials are continuing to urge people to stay home and follow this guidance.
Currently, North Carolina has no travel restrictions in place, but other states have taken it up a notch. For example, New York and Alaska are threatening up to $25,000 fines for some travelers not quarantining.
