Photos Show Big Thanksgiving Crowds, Little Distancing At O'Hare

CHICAGO — As Illinoisans prepare to travel for Thanksgiving — against CDC recommendations — NBC Chicago reported long lines and big crowds at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Friday.

Photos show most travelers wearing masks, but little evidence of social distancing.

Coronavirus cases are surging across the state and around the country, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended no travel this Thanksgiving. The agency's new guidelines say that "postponing planned travel and staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others this year."

Chicago is also still under am emergency travel order, meaning all travelers returning to the city after the holiday from any state other than Vermont, Maine or Hawaii should quarantine for 14 days.

AAA anticipates at least a 10 percent drop in travel this year — the largest one-year decrease since the 2008 Great Recession — but says Illinoisans should still anticipate bottlenecks and travel delays. And while most Patch readers told us they plan to celebrate Thanksgiving at home, with their own families, more than a quarter said it will be business as usual, prompting fears of superspreader events across the state.

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• 'Virus Isn't Taking A Holiday': Pritzker Gives Holiday Guidance
• Illinois Health Care Workers 'Paying The Price' As Cases Surge
• Holiday Events In Chicago: What Is Your Risk Of COVID Exposure?

State health officials said Thursday that Illinois hospitals are already at the "breaking point" with more than 6,000 COVID-19 patients across the state, including 1,192 in intensive care units and 587 on ventilators.

"I know at times that numbers can just fly over our heads, but to put it in simple terms: One in five hospitalized patients will die of COVID-19 infection, we are accumulating new infections at a rate of more than one per second, and every minute a fellow American dies of the virus," said Dr. Kamaljit Singh, a NorthShore University HealthSystem infectious disease specialist.

Speaking at a press conference with Gov. J.B. Pritzker Thursday, Singh continued: "It reminds me of growing up during the Vietnam War. I could never wrap my brain around the numbers of soldiers' lives lost, but the pictures were very compelling. Unfortunately, I can't show you pictures of the suffering of our patients."

The governor has announced that Tier 3 mitigations will take effect statewide starting Friday to help stem the spread of virus as cases and reduce hospitalizations.

Health officials say many preventable infections are tied to private family gatherings. Large, multi-family meals — like Thanksgiving Dinner — are especially risky, experts say, since the coronavirus is airborne and tiny droplets containing the virus can linger indoors for hours as aerosols.

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, Illinois' director of public health, said Thursday that she fears families getting together for Thanksgiving may mean some family members won't be alive to celebrate Christmas.

"My fear is the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths will spike even further in the weeks after Thanksgiving because people spent the holiday together mixing households," she explained. "I don't want anyone to have to look back and say, 'If only we didn't have people over for Thanksgiving, such-and-such, so-and-so might still be here for Christmas, or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa.'"