Thanksgiving travel: Thousands of flights take off across US, despite CDC warnings

These trips probably won’t fly with public health officials.

Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is urging Americans to not travel this Thanksgiving to limit the risk of contracting or spreading COVID-19 as cases spike across the country, thousands are still apparently flying before Turkey Day this year.

According to new data from Flightradar24, a global flight tracker that follow flights in real time, there were exactly 6,972 active flights at noon on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Surprisingly, that number isn't a whole lot smaller than recent years. At the same day and time in 2019, 7,630 active flights were reported and in 2018, 6,815 flights were recorded, per the figures shared to Twitter.

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Likewise, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened over three million people at airports across the country last weekend. Sunday, specifically, saw 1,047,934 passengers, marking the highest passenger volume since March.

This week, 917,354 passengers were screened on Monday, and 912,090 people passed through security checkpoints on Tuesday, according to the latest figures from the agency. As noted by Reuters, however, such screenings are down nearly 60% from the same time last year.

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For those who still plan to travel, the CDC recommends doing so "as safely as possible," by wearing a mask while in public, maintaining social distancing and washing hands often with soap and water.

As of Wednesday afternoon, 12,619,931 cases of coronavirus, and 260,322 deaths have been reported in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University.

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Fox News’ Alexandria Hein and Daniella Genovese contributed to this report.