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.
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.
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.
Video: California governor gets J&J vaccine as eligibility expands (Associated Press)
‘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 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 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.’
US STATE TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS
As of April 2, 2021, most states have dropped domestic travel restrictions for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Some still require quarantine periods or negative tests:
ALABAMA
No formal travel restrictions
ALASKA
No formal travel restrictions; testing within 72 hours of arrival advised
ARIZONA
No formal travel restrictions
ARKANSAS
No formal travel restrictions
CALIFORNIA
Visitors discouraged; 10-day quarantine recommended
COLORADO
No formal travel restrictions
CONNECTICUT
No formal travel restrictions; test and quarantine advised, but not required
DELAWARE
No formal travel restrictions
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Visitors advised to test negative within 72 hours before arrival; fully vaccinated people, fully recovered COVID-19 survivors and travelers from Maryland, Virginia, North Dakota and Hawaii exempt
FLORIDA
No formal travel restrictions
GEORGIA
No formal travel restrictions
HAWAII
Mandatory 10-day quarantine; exception for negative test taken within 72 hours before arrival
IDAHO
No formal travel restrictions
ILLINOIS
No statewide travel restrictions; Chicago requires 10-day quarantine or negative test taken within 72 hours before arrival from higher-risk states
INDIANA
No formal travel restrictions
IOWA
No formal travel restrictions
KANSAS
Seven- to 10-day quarantine required depending upon where you have traveled from and test status. See state guidance
KENTUCKY
Travel discouraged; No formal travel restrictions
LOUISIANA
No formal travel restrictions
MAINE
Mandatory 10-day quarantine or negative test taken within 72 hours before arrival; Fully vaccinated travelers and residents of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont exempt
MARYLAND
No formal travel restrictions
MASSACHUSETTS
Mandatory 10-day quarantine or negative test taken within 72 hours before arrival
MICHIGAN
No formal travel restrictions
MINNESOTA
No formal travel restrictions
MISSISSIPPI
No formal travel restrictions
MISSOURI
No formal travel restrictions
MONTANA
No formal domestic travel restrictions, except for international arrivals, who are required to test negative or quarantine
NEBRASKA
No formal travel restrictions
NEVADA
No formal domestic travel restrictions; testing within 3-5 days of arrival; people who have
NEW HAMPSHIRE
No formal domestic travel restrictions; testing within 3-5 days of arrival; people who have traveled internationally within 10 days must test negative or quarantine
NEW JERSEY
Visitors discouraged; testing one to three days before arrival and again after arrival advised; Seven-day quarantine advised with negative test; 10-day quarantine advised if results unavailable; Travelers from New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware exempt
NEW MEXICO
Mandatory 14-day quarantine; Travelers from ‘low-risk’ states with test-positivity rate of 5% or lower exempt
NEW YORK
No quarantine required after April 1; traveler health forms required
NORTH CAROLINA
No formal travel restrictions
NORTH DAKOTA
No formal travel restrictions
OKLAHOMA
No formal travel restrictions
OREGON
Advised 14-day quarantine
RHODE ISLAND
Travelers from states with 5% or higher test-positivity must quarantine for 10 days or test negative within 72 hours before arrival
SOUTH CAROLINA
No formal travel restrictions
SOUTH DAKOTA
No formal travel restrictions
TENNESSEE
No formal travel restrictions
TEXAS
No formal travel restrictions
UTAH
No formal travel restrictions
VERMONT
Mandatory 14-day quarantine for nonessential travelers; fully vaccinated travelers exempt
VIRGINIA
No formal travel restrictions
WASHINGTON
No formal travel restrictions
WEST VIRGINIA
No formal travel restrictions
WISCONSIN
No formal travel restrictions; nonessential travel discouraged
WYOMING
No formal travel restrictions
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