Americans are celebrating the start of the Memorial Day weekend by hitting the roads and skies as they seek to cast off more than a year of pandemic restrictions and try to resume a sense of normalcy.
Memorial Day honors Americans who have died in war and is also seen as the unofficial start to summer and a time when people traditionally travel to campgrounds, beaches and state parks.
While travel suffered last year because of coronavirus restrictions, this year Americans are looking to get back to their pre-pandemic routines.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urged Americans to be patient this weekend at airports.
“People will see lines because there’s going to be a tremendous amount of people traveling this weekend,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday.
More than 1.8 million people went through U.S. airports on Thursday, and that number is expected to rise during the weekend.
Mayorkas also reminded people that a federal mask mandate is still in place at airports and on airplanes.
The federal government and many state governments have relaxed masking mandates in many venues for people who have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Now that a majority of Americans have received inoculations against the disease, many…
