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 Carmen Rivera and her fiancee Jasmine Maisonet made the painful
decision to cancel their flights to visit family in Florida and
Puerto Rico after Maisonet was exposed to an infected co-worker and
tested positive for COVID-19.
Rivera, a newly elected city council member in Renton, Washington,
hasn't seen her family in Puerto Rico since the start of the
pandemic. With the latest wave of COVID-19 infecting even those who
have been vaccinated and boosted against the disease, like Maisonet,
Rivera said it stung to spend another holiday season in isolation.
"We thought we were safe, we were washing our hands, sanitizing,
vaccinated, masking - we believe in science," Rivera said.
The swift rise in infections from Omicron, first detected last month
and now accounting for 73% of U.S. cases, has added fresh confusion
and concern around holiday travel. Many Americans flocked to
COVID-19 testing sites or scrambled to get at-home tests this week
to ensure a negative test result before heading to see relatives.
President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that vaccinated people should
follow precautions but feel comfortable celebrating the holidays
with family and traveling as planned, despite the Omicron wave.
"You know you've done the right thing," Biden said. "Enjoy the
holiday season."
He emphasized that unvaccinated people are at a much higher risk of
dying from the virus and should get vaccinated.
Travel companies are betting vaccinated Americans will heed Biden's
advice and have retained a rosy outlook on this year's holiday
season, riding the momentum from a rebound in U.S. travel over
Thanksgiving.
The American Automobile Association estimates that 109 million
Americans will hit the road, board a plane or otherwise travel more
than 50 miles between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2, marking a 34% increase
from 2020, according to a statement from AAA.
However, AAA spokesperson Ellen Edmonds said that estimate was
compiled before Dec. 14, and the spike in cases that has occurred
since might prompt cancellations.
The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 2
million passengers through the nation's airports each day from Dec.
16-Dec. 20, which is about double the number of people who passed
through airports on those dates in 2020 and almost as many as in
2019. The agency said it expects to screen 30 million people between
Monday and Jan. 3.
Eric Hrubant, owner of the travel agency CIRE Travel in New York
City, said business hasn't dropped off like it did during the height
of the pandemic. But he said was working to provide his cautious
clients with information so they could make "an educated decision"
about whether to travel.
Hrubant said he hoped to keep his 10 employees on payroll, which he
managed to do through August during the wave of cases from the Delta
variant. When he heard of the Omicron variant spreading even more
rapidly, his first thought was, "'Oh dear God, I can't go through
this again.'"
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 Long Island insurance broker Lori Eves
considered the risk and refused to let Omicron
ruin her trip to Paris with her retired mother
this month. The two women had the Palace of
Versailles nearly all to themselves last Friday.
"I'm not really worried,” Eves, 42, said as she
took a tour of the palace outside the French
capital. “We're both vaccinated and boosted and
we just, you know, we felt safe.”
'IS IT WORTH IT?'
With just a few days left before Christmas on
Saturday, some Americans are waiting until the
last minute to decide whether to press forward
with their plans.
Morgan Johnson, a 28-year-old middle school
teacher in Washington DC, is spending the week
with her parents in Chicago. They are taking
several at-home COVID tests to determine whether
they will drive to see Johnson's grandparents
outside Minneapolis on Christmas day.
Her grandparents are in their 80s, vaccinated
and want the family to visit, Johnson said. But
she and her parents, all of whom are vaccinated,
worry about unknowingly spreading the variant to
the elderly couple.
“You would never forgive yourself for getting
your grandparents sick," Johnson said.
She also worries about how she would get back to
Washington for the start of school in January if
she were forced to isolate in place.
"It makes you think, is it worth it to go?" she
said.
Elizabeth Crutchley's family decided it was too
risky to travel. The 51-year-old was expecting
her daughter and son-in-law to visit her in
Maryland from Hawaii, but their fear of
infection is keeping everyone at home.
Crutchley, who lives with her husband and her
mother, said she was extra cautious because her
entire household contracted COVID-19 in
September despite being fully vaccinated.
Instead of the usual Christmas feast at a
relative's house, surrounded by her children and
family, Crutchley's holiday get-together now
will happen over Zoom.
"As long as we can see each other's faces and we
can laugh, it'll be okay," she said.
(Reporting by Julia Harte, Rich McKay, Michaela
Garber, David Shepardson and Gabriella Borter;
writing by Gabriella Borter; Editing by Colleen
Jenkins and Stephen Coates)
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