Fauci warns that omicron will be dominant in the US 2:38
(CNN) -
Despite an increase in COVID-19 cases and new restrictions emerging across the United States, passengers at US airports do not appear to be deterred from sticking to their vacation plans.
More than 2 million passengers went through security screening at US airports on Dec. 16, 17 and 18, according to checkpoint data from the Transportation Security Administration.
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Those passenger numbers at airports are nearly double what they were a year ago, but fall short of pre-2019 pandemic numbers, the data shows.
This increase in passenger numbers at airports comes as cities and even sports leagues struggle to control the increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
Already this week, major sports leagues postponed or canceled events due to outbreaks among players or increasing cases within cities.
This year, 2,063 million passengers passed through the airports on December 16, 2,234 million traveled on December 17 and 2,035 million traveled on December 18.
In those same days of 2020, 846,934 traveled on the 16th, 1,067 million traveled on the 17th and 1,074 million traveled on the 18th.
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In 2019, 2.471 million passengers traveled through airports on December 16, 2.608 million traveled on December 17, and 2.488 million traveled on December 18.
The fact that the number of travelers is about the same as before the pandemic suggests that so far people are not canceling plans despite the new omicron warnings.
Dr. Anthony Fauci and other health officials are encouraging travelers to be cautious, put on a brace and wear masks as much as possible, but unlike last winter, they are not telling people to cancel their plans.
On ABC on Sunday, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, defended a claim he made earlier in the week that people should feel comfortable traveling with family, but also said not to meet with those whose status vaccination is unknown.
"It's going to be a tough few weeks or months as we move into winter," Fauci told CNN's Jake Tapper, acknowledging the difficulty of wearing masks all the time.