TSA screens highest number of travelers since mid-March

Travlers at Dulles International Airport on Sunday.
(Image credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

More than 1.28 million passengers were screened by Transportation Security Administration workers at U.S. airports on Sunday, the highest daily number since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March.

The TSA said 1,284,599 people were screened, down about 50 percent from the number of travelers who passed through security on Dec. 27, 2019, Reuters reported Monday. Public health officials urged people to stay home for the holidays in an attempt to stop the spread of COVID-19, but airports have been recording a surge in passengers — over six of the last 10 days, the TSA screened more than 1 million people daily.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.