Fewer Will Be Traveling for Thanksgiving, But Holiday Will Be a Massive Superspreader Event
Monday, November 16, 2020
According to AAA Travel, effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including health concerns and high unemployment, are impacting Americans’ decisions to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday.
With health and government officials stressing that staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others from getting sick, AAA anticipates at least a 10% drop in travel – the largest one-year decrease since the Great Recession in 2008.
In Rhode Island and Massachusetts — AAA Northeast projects approximately a 10% decrease from 2019 in the number of people leaving home for Thanksgiving.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBased on mid-October forecast models, AAA would have expected up to 50 million Americans to travel for Thanksgiving – a drop from 55 million in 2019.
On October 20, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned about cases growing to 40,000 to 50,000 a day.
Less than 4 weeks later, the U.S. is suffering through 180,000 cases a day.
“It’s [Thanksgiving] quite concerning because we have a baseline of daily infections at approximately 40,000 to 50,000 per day,” he said in the interview, adding that more than 30 states have had upticks in test positivity -- as of Sunday 49 of 50 states have increases in cases.
New cases as a statistic “has proven in the past to be a very good prediction of a surge in cases which ultimately leads to a surge in hospitalizations and then in some individuals that will obviously be an increase in deaths,” Fauci said.
Now, an in person Thanksgiving could lead to increase spread, more cases and more deaths across the country.
On Wednesday and Thursday recorded more than 900 new cases per day — more than twice as many new cases as the highest day in the spring,
