SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) - Travelers returning home to the Bay Area after holiday visits with their families.
Health officials have warned of Christmas travel, saying gatherings could lead to an increase in new coronavirus cases across the country.
TSA agents say they screened more than a million people at the nation's airports Saturday, the highest number since the pandemic first began.
A total of 9 million people have flown since the holiday season began but holiday travel numbers overall are about half of what they were last year.
SFO travel is down. Airport officials projected 16,300 outbound on Sunday, December 27.
74,300 traveled through SFO on December 27 last year.
The TSA says this Christmas holiday travel period is the busiest since the pandemic began.
At SFO, travelers say they thought long and hard about whether to see their loved ones over the holiday.
"It was a difficult factor especially after we saw what happened on Thanksgiving but I already had the ticket it was not refundable so we just wanted to see family I guess,” Rene Jasso said.
Rene Jasso hugged his family goodbye Sunday afternoon before flying back home to North Carolina where he plans to self-quarantine.
“I work from home. I'm just studying right now so just going back home and stay in my apartment,” Jasso said.
Nicole Sanfilippo heading home to San Diego says her whole family tested negative for COVID before their Christmas gathering in New York.
"I felt like at home I wasn't really going to be out and about it was just like home to see family. The biggest thing was just the flights so I felt safe from the flight and when I went home I wasn't really going to interact with anyone else except for immediate family,” Sanfilippo said.
The CDC has been pleading with people not to travel to see family over the holidays to avoid fueling the raging COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 330,000 people nationwide.
TSA screened 1.1 million passengers through US airports on Saturday the day after Christmas. That's about 50 percent down from last year.
Health officials expect the worst to come in the next few weeks after Christmas and New Year's travelers return home.
Linda Donofrio says she has taken the proper safety precautions.
"Wear a mask, wash my hands and I just wanted to be with my family,” Donofrio said. “I have been tested and if I had any suggestion of symptoms I would go get tested again immediately. I have a pulse oximeter at home I take my temperature."
SFO was quiet Sunday, airport officials project about 16,000 passengers flying out, down from 74,000 in 2019.
Reminders of COVID-19 safety protocols could be seen throughout the airport including the required 10-day quarantine for anyone heading to San Francisco and Santa Clara County.
Far fewer people are traveling by air but with fewer flights now available, the planes are often full.
The CDC says while the air is circulated and filtered in the planes making it difficult to spread viruses - the lack of social distancing and sitting close to people for hours may increase your risk of getting COVID-19.
Health experts are more worried about what happens at people's destinations as private gatherings are causing a surge in COVID cases.
Latest Posts
- Elective, non-urgent surgeries at Kaiser Permanente halted until Jan. 4
- TSA: Christmas holiday travel was busiest since pandemic began
- Parts of California likely to have lockdown orders extended
- President Trump has signed the aid package, how long will it take for stimulus checks to arrive?
- Trump signs massive measure funding government, COVID relief
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/37Xnu3f
No comments:
Post a Comment