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Coronavirus News: Concerns high with busiest travel day expected Sunday

ByDiana Rocco WABC logo

Sunday, November 29, 2020

Concerns high with busiest travel day expected Sunday

Sunday could be the busiest travel day since the coronavirus pandemic began, causing concern for local leaders and health officials.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Sunday could be the busiest travel day since the coronavirus pandemic began, causing concern for local leaders and health officials.

The majority of travelers will be heading home from the Thanksgiving holiday and that means another very busy day for airports among COVID concerns.

Nationwide, 6 million people flew to a destination for Thanksgiving.

The Port Authority reported half a million people passing through their airports and reported screening more than 800,000 people on Friday alone.

Even so that's a decrease of more than 70% compared to the same five-day period last year when more than 1.7 million air travelers passed through Port Authority's facilities.

An illegal club with nearly 400 people inside was shut down early Saturday, the New York City Sheriff said.

While masks were required, social distancing on airplanes and through security lines was very tough to do.

That could potentially assist rising COVID rates in New York and around the country.

This comes as the state's rolling positivity rate is just shy of 4%, but given the increased out of state travel a further spike is expected.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has required all people coming back from holiday travel to quarantine for three days until they can get tested.

Of course a test was required before they left, however, officials are still expecting a further spike in numbers with all the post-Thanksgiving weekend travel.

If you are flying back into New York's airports on Sunday, you may find the National Guard waiting for you.

MORE NEWS: "COVID tested" flights to take off from JFK, Newark airports next month

Italian authorities will soon approve an experiment with "COVID tested" flights from three U.S. airports with the aim of eliminating the required 14-day quarantine for passengers arriving in Italy, Rome's main airport said Thursday.

New York state is requiring all travelers coming in to fill out contract tracing forms upon landing at your destination and where you plan to quarantine or face up to $10,000 in fines.