- Title: 'We know we're taking a risk' - holiday travelers depart NY's LaGuardia Airport
- Date: 25th November 2020
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 25, 2020) (REUTERS) DOORS OPENING AT TERMINAL AT NEW YORK'S LAGUARDIA AIRPORT SIGN FOR ENTRANCE TO TERMINAL B WITH WOMAN PASSING THROUGH DOOR SIGN WITH PANEL SAYING (English): 'TRAVEL SMART / HAPPY THANKSGIVING' / AMERICAN AIRLINES GATE INSIDE TERMINAL VARIOUS OF MAN AT DESK FOR COVID-19 TESTING MAN STANDING NEXT TO 'I HEART NEW
- Embargoed: 9th December 2020 19:35
- Keywords: COVID-19 La Guardia Airport Thanksgiving travel coronavirus holiday season
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Health/Medicine,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA001D62DCUF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: New York's LaGuardia Airport was noticeably sparse on what is usually the busiest travel day of the year in the United States - the Wednesday (November 25) before Thanksgiving.
Masked passengers told Reuters they understood the risks of traveling during the worsening coronavirus pandemic, as health officials and governors across the country urged people to stay home over the winter holidays.
Daliza Rodriguez, a 33-year-old childhood educator, was traveling to Texas from New York's LaGuardia Airport on Wednesday.
"We know we're taking a risk but we want to see the family and it has been a long time...so we want to see them and have fun," she said.
Nearly 1 million passengers a day have been screened at airport security checkpoints for the past week, with Sunday's (November 22) total of 1.047 million being the highest number since the early days of the pandemic in mid-March.
Daily U.S. deaths from COVID-19 surpassed 2,000 for the first time since May on Tuesday (November 24) and hospitalizations reached a record 88,000 on Wednesday as the country recorded 2.3 million new infections in the past two weeks alone.
Steep surges in cases typically result in a rising death toll weeks later. Coronavirus deaths reached 2,157 on Tuesday - one person every 40 seconds - with another 170,000 people infected, as millions of Americans disregarded official warnings and traveled for Thanksgiving.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged people to keep Thanksgiving gatherings as small as possible.
Families with university students have been forced to evaluate the risk of reuniting for Thanksgiving.
"I feel like I am young and healthy," Gustavo Diaz, a recent college graduate, told Reuters. But he didn't dismiss the risk as he got ready to travel to Florida from LaGuardia.
Rather, when considering staying back and not flying, "I thought that way about everything," Rodriguez said.
But another traveler said she was willing to take the chance.
"It's not a little bit of a risk" Elaine Weinberg, a comptroller for a Toronto clothing company, told Reuters as she passed through LaGuardia on the way to Florida. "Going to the grocery store is the same thing."
The first vaccines could be weeks away with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration due to rule on Dec. 10 on whether to approve Pfizer Inc's vaccine for emergency use.
The U.S. government's Operation Warp Speed program plans to release 6.4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses nationwide in an initial distribution as soon as one is approved.
If all goes well, 40 million doses will be distributed by the end of the year, they said.
(Production by: Dan Fastenberg and Andrew Hofstetter) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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