TSA screens over 3M flyers in 3 days ahead of Thanksgiving
More than 3 million people went through airport security checkpoints across the United States between Friday and Sunday, despite public health guidance against traveling for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened 1,019,836 individuals on Friday and 984,369 on Saturday. But Sunday saw the most travelers, with TSA screening 1,047,934 people -- the highest since the coronavirus pandemic was declared in mid-March.
The previous pandemic record was set on Oct. 18, the Sunday after the long Columbus Day weekend, when TSA screened 1,031,505 individuals.
Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is recommending that Americans do not travel for Thanksgiving.
"It's not a requirement, it's a recommendation for the American public to consider," Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC's COVID-19 incident manager, told reporters during a call on Nov. 19. "Right now, as we're seeing exponential growth in cases and the opportunity to translocate disease or infection from one part of the country to another leads to our recommendation to avoid travel at this time."
ABC News' Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.