ORLANDO, Fla. — Sunday is expected to be the busiest travel day of the holiday weekend as millions of people return home after gathering with family and friends for Thanksgiving.
Traffic at Orlando International Airport, the nation’s sixth-busiest, started the morning slow but picked up, and long lines stretched out as passengers checked in for their flights. Traffic was expected to pick up throughout the day.
What You Need To Know
- Millions of people expected to return home Sunday after Thanksgiving
- OIA is expecting to see about 44,000 travelers
- Holiday travel and gatherings are likely to boost COVID case numbers, experts say
- The U.S. has reported more than 1 million new cases over the past seven days
OIA officials said they are seeing about 40,000 passengers daily now, about half of their precoronavirus departure levels. On Sunday, 44,000 people were expected to fly out of OIA.
While the number of travelers flying for Thanksgiving is down more than half from last year, airports are seeing their biggest crowds moving through since mid-March, when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. The increase comes while COVID-19 case numbers are soaring across the United States, hitting new highs as the nation consistently reports more than 100,000 new cases a day.
To cut down on new cases from holiday gatherings and travel, doctors had urged people to stay home.
"I would recommend for everyone to quarantine for at least seven days and then get a test,” emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen said. “If you cannot get a COVID test, then quarantine for 14 days."
The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has said that people in airports are “going to get us into even more trouble than we’re in right now.”
More than 1 million new coronavirus cases have been reported in the United States in the past seven days.