Will Labor Day bring another coronavirus spike? Most in the US are worried, poll finds
After a substantial rise in coronavirus cases and deaths during the summer months, many in the United States are worried Labor Day weekend events could lead to another spike.
Apoll by WalletHub found 77% of respondents do not trust other Americans to be responsible with social distancing during Labor Day weekend, which is often celebrated with travel, family gatherings and outdoor events
Memorial Day and Fourth of July festivities likely contributed to spikes in coronavirus cases in June and July, health officials have said.
The United States had about 1.7 million reported coronavirus cases in late May, compared to nearly 6 million in late August, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Linda Bell, South Carolina’s lead epidemiologist, said officials continue to have concerns ahead of Labor Day “because people go out and celebrate,” The State newspaper reported.
“There are ways that we can do these things much, much, much more safely than we have in previous holidays,” Bell said.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler said he is also worried about the coming weekend.
“I am nervous about families and friends getting together in large groups for Labor Day,” he wrote in a message posted online. “I’m worried about the many students coming back to Austin. While schools are working hard to mitigate risk, I’m worried returning students who have not been living with us will not know of or join in the masking and distancing discipline we’ve all learned.”
Seventy-five percent of 400 respondents in the WalletHub poll said they will not travel during for Labor Day this year.
Even so, about 6 million Americans plan on flying this weekend, Business Insider reported. Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando are expected to be popular travel destinations, along Cancun, Mexico, according to the publication.
“What happens ultimately depends on how risky those people are when they travel,” Dr. Spencer Fox, an epidemiologist at the University of Texas at Austin, told Business Insider. “If they treat it like a normal vacation and aren’t taking any precautions that would be recommended to reduce transmission, it could very well exacerbate local pandemics, and then mean that they bring the disease back to wherever they’re from.”
The weekend could also lead to family gatherings, which have officials worried.
Dr. George Rutherford, the principal investigator for California’s contact tracing program, said “small gatherings are a concern,” according to USA Today. “They may account for a much greater proportion of the cases than we think right now.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 10:13 AM.