SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Millions of Americans traveled for Christmas and millions more plan to celebrate on New Year’s Eve. That has experts warning the worst of the pandemic is yet to come, as the total number of cases in the U.S. tops 19 million.
The data is now in for Christmas-time traveling at San Diego International Airport and overall, the numbers are down 70%, compared to last year. However, something that is unique is that more people traveled to and from San Diego than during the Thanksgiving holiday.
Why is that special? Well, San Diego was placed into a three-week stay-at-home order earlier this month that included a travel ban.
Still people packed their bags and left San Diego and some even came to San Diego for Christmas and maybe even New Year’s Eve.
The CDC recently ordered that in the UK passengers must test negative for COVID-19 within three days of boarding a flight to the U.S. However, a spokesperson with the San Diego International Airport told news 8 that's not likely to impact San Diego much.
"We have not had British airline flights since the pandemic began. We do not have direct flights from the UK into San Diego. Any of those passengers would be coming from other gateway airports," Sabrina LoPiccolo Public Information Officer at San Diego County Regional Airport Authority said.
This is due to a surge of a new COVID-19 strain detected in the UK. The CDC says travel restrictions already in place has cut travel between the US and UK by 90% already. Some doctors are warning the new strain may already be here.
More than 40 nations have already placed travel bans on the UK. Now the U.S. joins the growing list in an effort to stop the spread of the new mutation.
Holiday travel has health experts worried about another COVID-19 surge
The data is now in for Christmas-time traveling at San Diego International Airport and overall, the numbers are down 70% percent, compared to last year.