Nearly three in four Americans say they plan to stay home this Thanksgiving amid a surge in COVID-19 cases across the country, according to a new poll.
The poll, which was conducted by Monmouth University, found 74 percent of Americans saying they plan to stay home on Thanksgiving. Among the remaining percentages, the poll found 10 percent saying they plan to travel overnight, 13 percent saying they plan to drive to another place and back in the same day and 3 percent said they didn't know.
In comparison, the poll found a decrease in the percent of Americans saying they plan to stay home for the holiday compared to previous years.
According to the poll, only 44 percent of respondents said they planned to stay home for Thanksgiving before this year. Twenty-three percent said they planned to travel overnight and 30 percent said they'd travel somewhere and back within the same day.
Monmouth University surveyed 810 U.S. adults from November 12 to November 16 and reported a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
The poll's findings come amid a surge of COVID-19 cases across the U.S. with many states issuing new holiday restrictions to limit the spread of the novel virus.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. has seen daily case counts surpass 100,000 in each of the last 16 straight days. Across the U.S. there are currently more than 11.7 million confirmed cases, and at least 253,064 deaths.
Amid surging case counts across the U.S., several states such as New York, Oregon and Massachusetts have imposed new holiday mitigation efforts, including a limit on the number of people in a private indoor setting.
The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also issued recommended guidelines for the upcoming holiday, which encourages Americans to limit the number of people at an indoor gathering.
Additionally, the poll found that 45 percent of respondents said they plan to spend Thanksgiving with a small number of additional family members and friends, compared to 37 percent that said just members of their household, 8 percent that said they plan to spend the holiday alone and 8 percent that plan to have a large gathering of family and friends.
In comparison to previous years, the poll found 53 percent of respondents saying they plan to spend Thanksgiving with fewer guests than usual. Forty-two percent said they plan to spend the holiday with the same amount of people as usual and just 4 percent said they expect more people.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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