COVID-19 and travel: As airports are packed across the U.S., experts warn of ‘a surge’ of new cases after Thanksgiving
Despite warnings from public well being officers to not journey for Thanksgiving, a lot of individuals are doing simply that. Reports are piling in from airports across the nation that describe massive crowds. While most vacationers put on masks, some images clearly present individuals with out face coverings.
Video shared on Twitter from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, in Arizona, exhibits a packed, standing-room-only airport as individuals wait at their gates to board flights.
Crowds at Sky Harbor: The day after the CDC advisable individuals cancel their Thanksgiving journey plans, #azfamily viewer Ed Westerfield caught this scene of passengers ready at their gates pic.twitter.com/r9gIhWlbek
— Max Gorden (@Max_Gorden) November 21, 2020
At San Francisco International Airport, individuals could be seen crowded collectively in seats with a lot of others standing close by as they wait to fly out.
In Des Moines, airport officers instructed the Des Moines Register that they anticipate a 50 p.c improve in regular passenger visitors in the lead-up to Thanksgiving. And CBS Boston shared a video of Logan International Airport of lengthy strains of individuals ready to board flights and a packed check-in terminal.
These reviews come simply days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged individuals to not journey for the vacation. “Travel may increase your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19,” the organization says on-line. “Postponing travel and staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others this year.” The CDC additionally urged would-be vacationers to ask themselves critical questions similar to whether or not you or somebody in your family is at an elevated threat of getting very sick from COVID-19, whether or not cases are growing in your neighborhood, and whether or not hospitals in your space are overwhelmed with COVID-19 sufferers.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s prime infectious illness physician, additionally warned this week about vacation journey, saying throughout an look on CBS’ Face the Nation that individuals who are flying for the vacation “are going to get us into even more trouble than we’re in right now.”
Doctors say this might result in superspreader occasions across the nation
“Airports have done a lot to try to become safer since the pandemic began, and we haven’t heard about airport-based outbreaks,” Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, tells Yahoo Life. But, he says, that was depending on individuals following public well being suggestions for stopping the unfold of COVID-19, like bodily distancing, sporting face masks as a lot as attainable, and practising good hand hygiene.
“Because Thanksgiving is a push for people to travel, most people who don’t adhere to protocols will be likely to be in airports,” Adalja says. “As a result, we will likely hear of more airport transmission.”
Dr. Richard Watkins, an infectious illness doctor in Akron, Ohio, and a professor of inside drugs at the Northeast Ohio Medical University, tells Yahoo Life that he’s particularly involved about some individuals not sporting masks. “If people are not wearing masks while in crowds, then they are obviously not taking the pandemic seriously,” he says. “It can’t be blamed on lack of awareness at this point.”
Adalja says that it’s “hard to predict” what, precisely, could trigger a superspreader occasion, however he says the potential is there. “Clearly, there’s enough kindling at an airport that, if you have people not wearing masks and spacing out, a superspreader event can happen,” he says. And, as a result of individuals are flying to totally different components of the U.S., “it can start off chains of transmission that go all over the country,” Adalja says.
It’s not nearly what’s taking place in airports, although. It’s the complete journey expertise that’s a possible downside, Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious illness specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life. “It’s the traveling in the airports, being on planes and, of course, all those familial reunions that will be taking place,” he says. “If you put all those together, there are many, many opportunities for the virus to spread.”
That’s why Schaffner says that many public well being experts are anticipating “a surge upon an existing surge” of new COVID-19 cases just a few weeks after Thanksgiving.
“I’m extraordinarily concerned that this is going to continue to be a driver of more and more cases,” Dr. Thomas Russo, professor and chief of infectious illness at the University at Buffalo, tells Yahoo Life. “There just seems to be a segment of the population who are defiant about wearing masks and social distancing.”
Russo says the crowds are a transparent indication of COVID-19 fatigue. “People will justify what they want to do, and just don’t seem to want to accept the reality that all of these actions can spread the virus,” he says.
It might be troublesome for public well being experts to really observe what number of infections come in consequence of individuals flying, Dr. David Cennimo, assistant professor of drugs/pediatrics infectious illness at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, tells Yahoo Life. “It’s going to be hard to figure out if you caught COVID because you took a plane or if you took a car and had dinner with your family,” he says. “But there’s no way that being in a crowded area with people you don’t know — especially if you’re not wearing a mask — is a good idea.”
If this week’s journey is any indication, Watkins says that folks ought to anticipate the virus to “spread exponentially until the vaccine is widely available and many people have gotten it.”
How to remain secure should you fly
While the CDC stresses that staying house is the finest option to defend your self and others from COVID-19, the group does supply up some suggestions on-line on how one can make your flight as secure as attainable:
Wear a masks to maintain your nostril and mouth coated
Avoid shut contact with anybody who shouldn’t be in your family, ideally staying at the least 6 toes aside from others
Wash your fingers typically or use alcohol-based hand sanitizer
Avoid contact with anybody who’s sick
Avoid touching your eyes, nostril and mouth
Given the massive crowds that are at airports proper now, Adalja says, it’s additionally a good suggestion to attempt to keep way back to attainable from the gates the place individuals are crowded. Instead, wait till it’s your time to board to get in line and, once more, do your finest to remain spaced aside.
“If need be, just be the last person on and the last person off the plane,” Russo says. “And wait for the crowds to clear at baggage claim.”
Overall, experts anticipate that issues will worsen earlier than they get higher. “Christmas will be a rough time,” Adalja says. “There’s no indication cases and hospitalizations will be on a different trajectory nationally.”
For the latest coronavirus news and updates, comply with alongside at https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, individuals over 60 and those that are immunocompromised proceed to be the most in danger. If you might have questions, please reference the CDC’s and WHO’s useful resource guides.
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