Over 2 million people passed through the airport between Friday and Saturday, according to the TSA.

Last Thursday, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Americans do not travel for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday as the US is undergoing a massive surge of coronavirus cases. Public health experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned of an uptick in coronavirus cases following the high rates of travel, non-the-less, over 5 million Americans passed through airports ahead of the Christmas holiday.

As of Sunday, the US recorded a total of 17.6 million cases of coronavirus and over 316,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, Business Insider reports.

Business Insider’s Morgan McFall-Johnsen reported, over 47,000 people in the country have died from coronavirus since the Thanksgiving holiday and hospitals have struggled to support an overwhelming number of patients. While the tragic surge in deaths is attributed to pandemic fatigue, cold weather forcing people indoors, and lax policies on masks and closures, the recent record-breaking days of death are also the result of infections contracted around Thanksgiving, McFall-Johnsen reported.

Dr. Fauci, in a recent interview with The Washington Post, warned the public ahead of the Christmas holiday to remain home as much as possible, and that it “cannot be business as usual this Christmas because we’re already in a very difficult situation, and we’re going to make it worse if we don’t do something about it.”

Around the world

In other parts of the world, England is looking that it could remain under strict ‘Tier 4’ lockdown measures, meaning that in London and the south-east, people must stay at home over Christmas and must not meet up with other households.

Italy, on the other hand, ordered a nationwide lockdown for the holidays amid a surge in coronavirus cases.

Crowds at Sky Harbor: The day after the CDC recommended people cancel their Thanksgiving travel plans, #azfamily viewer Ed Westerfield caught this scene of passengers waiting at their gates pic.twitter.com/r9gIhWlbek

— Max Gorden (@Max_Gorden) November 21, 2020

3TV and CBS5 journalist Max Gorden posted a video on Friday, which showed packed crowds of people waiting at the gates of the Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona. Arizona has over 290,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University.