US hits 13M coronavirus cases
Despite advice not to travel, air travel hit new peak day before Thanksgiving holiday
The US registered more than 13 million cases of the coronavirus Friday, one day after Americans celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday.
Six days after passing the 12 million threshold, the US reached the new milestone.
Late Friday, it reported 13,072,584 infections and more than 264,000 deaths, the highest number of any nation, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Although public health experts recommended Americans avoid traveling for the holiday, air travel hit a new peak since March.
US Transportation Security Administration figures showed, 1,070,967 people crossed US airport checkpoints Wednesday, even though travel remains significantly lower than in years past. The figure Wednesday is less than half of the 2.6 million who traveled the same day in 2019.
The country has seen a surge in new infections in recent weeks as the winter months force more people indoors. Friday was the 25th straight day the country recorded more than 100,000 new infections, reporting at least 110,611 new cases.
Top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci suggested infections are likely to remain high or even get worse through the next three months.
