Somewhere under all those flights is America. Photo / Supplied
Somewhere under all those flights is America. Photo / Supplied
Somewhere under these thousands of planes is a map of the United States.
The United States may have more than 18 million cases of Covid-19 and a death toll of 327,000 - but that isn't stopping many Americans from seeing friends and family this Christmas.
There are fears the Christmas travel will lead to a super spreader event, after the Transportation Security Administration screened almost 1.2 million travellers on Wednesday.
That breaks the previous pandemic travelling record set after Thanksgiving.
To put that in comparison, last year there were 2.5 million travellers on the same date.
This is despite warnings to avoid travelling this Christmas because of the virus risk.
Despite the warnings and the risk, the number of people travelling has dropped by half.
Cars line up as healthcare workers ready Covid-19 tests at the CityTestSF at Alemany Farmer's Market location during the coronavirus pandemic in San Francisco. Photo / AP
Since December 18, more than six million travellers have been screened by the FSA.
"Travel can increase your chance of spreading and getting Covid-19. Postponing travel and staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others from Covid-19," the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warned this month.
America's top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci also pleaded with people to not travel.
"Stay at home as much as you can, keep your interactions to the extent possible to members of the same household," he told the Washington Post.
"This 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."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Photo / AP
Dr Henry Walke, from the CDC, said travelling at Christmas would only make the pandemic worse.
"The best thing for Americans to do in the upcoming holiday season is to stay at home and not travel.
"Cases are rising. Hospitalisations are increasing, Deaths are increasing. We need to try to bend the curve, stop this exponential increase."
Anyone who does travel has been urged to get tested before and after their trips.
The winter surge in cases rages across the country, where the virus has claimed more than 320,000 lives and is on course to be the third leading cause of death in the year.
America reported more than 3400 deaths from the virus yesterday, and 232,000 new infections across the country.
