‘Christmas Is Gonna Be A Lot Harder’: Biden Warns Against Holiday Travel, Says Coronavirus Deaths Could Double In December

President-elect Joe Biden discouraged traveling during the holidays Wednesday and said 250,000 Americans may die from coronavirus before January.

Biden made the holiday comments during a virtual roundtable with employees and small business owners on Wednesday, CNN reported. The coronavirus pandemic’s economic repercussions impacted the employees and business owners at the roundtable.

“And I hope you all are listening as with all the trouble you’re going through, you cannot be traveling during these holidays,” Biden said in a video of the roundtable.

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Biden spoke about how his entire family normally gathers at Thanksgiving during the virtual roundtable. The president-elect said this year was different, and that only his daughter and son-in-law joined him and his wife for Thanksgiving while the rest of his family called in over Zoom.

“Well, Christmas is gonna be a lot harder. And, you know, I don’t want to scare anybody here, but understand the facts. We’re likely to lose another 250,000 people dead between now and January. You hear me? Because people aren’t paying attention. People aren’t paying attention,” Biden said in the roundtable.

Biden also stressed there must be methods to reduce the virus, its replication rate, and stressed the necessity for more testing during the roundtable.

There have been 273,633 total American deaths from the coronavirus, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Even though CDC guidance discouraged Americans from traveling during Thanksgiving, a TSA spokesperson said over 1.17 million Americans on Sunday went through TSA checkpoints, the highest number of daily travelers since March.

The CDC’s current guidance discourages Americans from traveling and encourages testing for anyone who does travel, according to the organization’s website. The CDC encouraged people to weigh getting tested before and after traveling.

The Biden Transition team did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.