The Transportation Security Administration screened nearly 1.6 million travelers on Friday and Saturday marking the highest number of flyers in the United States since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mark Howell, a TSA spokesperson, told Axios that the increase happened largely because of spring breakers who have been pictured packing destinations like Miami Beach in Florida.
The agency screened 1,562,239 people on Friday and 1,580,785 people on Saturday, according to TSA data.
The TSA had screened 124,021 people on April 1 and 129,763 on April 2 of last year while the disease spread and travel largely halted.
The Transportation Security Administration screened nearly 1.6 million travelers on Friday and Saturday
Mark Howell, a TSA spokesperson, has attributed that increase largely to spring breakers who have been pictured packing destinations like Miami Beach
However, those numbers are still down from 2019 when 2,411,500 travelled on April 1 and 2,476,884 people traveled on April 2.
CBS News noted that the TSA has screened more than a million people a day for 17 days in a row since March 11.
‘That’s significant because it hasn’t happened at any point, even during the holidays, during the past year,’ CBS News travel correspondent Errol Barnett told the outlet.
Howell told Axios that the TSA is getting ready to screen more travelers in the summer after the agency said in February that it was looking to hire 6,000 new officers.
Despite the decline in air travel, Simply Flying noted that it appears as if the TSA offered some early retirements at the start of the pandemic but was able to avoid large-scale layoffs.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday that Americans who are fully vaccinated can travel domestically and internationally and that vaccinated people who arrive in the United States from other countries do not have to quarantine.
However, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the agency is continuing to discourage travel because of a continued increase in the seven-day average of cases and hospitalizations, NPR noted.
‘And while we believe that fully vaccinated people can travel at low risk to themselves, CDC is not recommending travel at this time due to the rising number of cases,’ Walensky said in a press briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team.
Spring breakers stroll along Ocean Drive in Miami Beach on March 31 after Miami-Dade County began a countywide curfew
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday that Americans who are fully vaccinated can travel domestically and internationally
Jeffrey Zients, the head of President Joe Biden’s coronavirus response team, said during the briefing that 74 percent of people aged 65 and over have received at least one shot with 52 percent now fully vaccinated as of Friday.
‘Overall, nearly 100 million Americans have received at least one dose, and more than 56 million adult Americans are now fully vaccinated,’ he said.
The U.S. is administering about 2.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines a day.
There have been a total of 30,663,748 total coronavirus cases in the United States with 554,735 deaths.
In the last few weeks, spring breakers have been invading Florida with Miami Beach becoming so uncontrollable that authorities imposed a curfew as SWAT teams were seen moving in to clear people out.
A map of the United States shows where cases have recently increased as there have been 30,663,748 total cases nationwide with 554,735 deaths
A chart shows the number of deaths in the United States steadily declining in small waves in March and April
A chart shows that there have been 554,735 total deaths in the United States since the start of the pandemic
A chart shows that the number of infections per day in March and April has remained largely the same
A chart shows that there have been 30,663,748 total infections in the United States since the start of the pandemic
A SWAT vehicle was filmed moving down Ocean Drive – a popular party street – and using an LRAD, also known as a sound cannon, to get people to disperse, video posted to Twitter on March 21 showed.
Miami-Dade County has since imposed a countywide curfew from midnight to 6 a.m. every day, until canceled or revised.
The crowds of young people crushing the beach city have sparked worries of a coronavirus ‘super-spreader’ event, while alcohol-fueled partiers have been starting fights in restaurants and in the streets, officials said.
Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have since praised the new travel guidance from the CDC that allows fully vaccinated people to safely travel, The Hill reported.
‘More customers than ever during the pandemic are showing us they’re ready to get back out and reconnect with the world—and we’re ready to help them reclaim their lives safely,’ a Delta spokeswoman told The Hill on Friday.
A United spokesman told The Hill: ‘Today’s updated guidance from the CDC reinforces the importance of vaccinations and is a positive step in the right direction to safely resuming global travel.’
