Americans urged to stay home for Thanksgiving as virus surges

The recent surge in US cases has sufficiently alarmed authorities 

Credit: AP

US authorities on Thursday urged Americans not to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday as virus cases soared in the worst-hit nation.

America was hit by a spike of over 200,000 new infections and 2,239 fatalities — the worst death toll since May — over the past 24 hours, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University.

A powerful weapon against the virus could be coming soon though, as BioNTech and Pfizer planned to apply on Friday for emergency use authorisation of their vaccine in the US.

The recent surge in US cases has sufficiently alarmed authorities that they asked Americans to stay home for next week’s Thanksgiving holiday, which normally sees millions travel to gather with their families for meals — ideal conditions for virus spread.

"It’s not a requirement. It’s a strong recommendation," Henry Walke, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doctor, told reporters.

Thanksgiving is the busiest US holiday in terms of travel, as it falls on a Thursday and many Americans take the Friday off work and make a long weekend of it.

Coronavirus USA Spotlight Chart — cases default

Despite the warning, President-elect Joe Biden did not come out for the type of national shutdown that some European nations have put back in place as cases have jumped after a summer lull.

"There’s no circumstance which I can see that would require total national shutdown. I think that would be counterproductive," Mr Biden, who takes office on January 20, told reporters Thursday.

US states and cities have been imposing their own restrictions, including home confinement, the closure of indoor dining and a limit on gatherings as infections soar across the country.

New York City on Thursday closed its schools — affecting 1.1 million students — but left gyms and bars open, the opposite of the virus strategy in many European cities where schools have stayed open.

California will impose a 10.00 pm to 5.00 am curfew from Saturday, with state Governor Gavin Newsom saying it was "crucial to decrease transmission and slow hospitalisations."

President Donald Trump has been muted in his public reactions to the surge in cases, staying largely out of the public eye as he presses his unsubstantiated fraud claims in the election he lost to Biden.