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48 states considered 'at a tipping point,' as Americans prepare to travel for Christmas amid pandemic

Virus Outbreak Holiday Travel
Posted at 5:57 PM, Dec 22, 2020
and last updated 2020-12-23 07:28:33-05

As people prepare to travel for Christmas, experts are concerned about another spike in coronavirus cases.

We are almost a month out from Thanksgiving, and according to the COVID Tracking Project, more than 47,000 people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 since Thanksgiving.

And although the CDC advised against traveling, the Transportation Security Administration screened 9.5 million travelers during the 10-day Thanksgiving travel period.

TSA also screened more than 3.2 million people at airports nationwide this past weekend.

And as people gear up to spend the Christmas holiday with loved ones, the surge of new COVID-19 cases continues with no end in sight.

The Harvard Global Health Institute and Brown School of Public Health created a risk-assessment tool that color-codes states with over 25 new daily cases per 100,000 people. The color red on the map means the state is considered "at a tipping point."

According to the Harvard and Brown researchers, the 10 worst states considered to be "at a tipping point" are Tennessee, Rhode Island, California, Alabama, Arizona, Oklahoma, Indiana, Utah, Arkansas, and Delaware.

According to Johns Hopkins University data, in Tennessee, the state's positive rate is 19.2%.

In Alabama, the state's positive rate is 40.4%. Arkansas's positive rate is 18.7%, Arizona's is 13.1%, Delaware's is 7.7%, 13.3% of COVID tests in California are positive, Oklahoma's positive rate is 21.1%, Indiana has an 11.6% positive rate, Rhode Island is at a 6.3%, and 17.6% of COVID tests in Utah are positive.

According to the CDC, between 1.2 million to 2.3 million new cases are likely to be reported in the week ending January 9, 2021.