TSA screened nearly 1.3 million travelers Sunday, setting a pandemic record

December 28, 2020
Travel

Nearly 1.3 million people traveled through American airports Sunday, setting a pandemic travel record – despite warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stay at home to quell coronavirus cases.

The Transportation Security Administration said it screened 1,284,599 people, many of whom were returning from holiday travel. That beats the TSA’s previous record of 1,191,123, set Dec. 23. On Saturday, 1,128,773 people passed through TSA security checkpoints.

Sunday was the sixth day of the Christmas holiday rush to see screenings exceed 1 million a day. Many people began their travel last weekend, when the TSA screened more than a million passengers a day Dec. 18-20.

Travelers crowd a terminal at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C., on Sunday, Dec. 27. The Transportation Security Administration says it screened nearly 1.3 million passengers Sunday, more than any other day since the pandemic began.

As of Monday, the U.S. has more than 19 million cases of the coronavirus and 333,140 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins data.

CDC to Americans:Avoid travel during winter holiday season, get COVID-19 tests if you do

The CDC had urged Americans not to travel for the winter holidays, just as it did before Thanksgiving.

“The best thing for Americans to do in the upcoming holiday season is to stay at home and not travel,” Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC’s COVID-19 incident manager, said in a news briefing in early December. “Cases are rising. Hospitalizations are increasing, Deaths are increasing. We need to try to bend the curve, stop this exponential increase.”

TSA screened pandemic record 1.19 million travelers Wednesday

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