Coronavirus Live Updates: December Is Deadliest Month Of Pandemic In U.S.

Public health officials have asked Americans not to travel for the holidays as cases and hospitalizations surged after Thanksgiving gatherings, but airport travel has been ticking up.

A new strain of the coronavirus from the U.K. — which is thought to be more transmissible, but not more lethal — is also causing concern. At least a dozen other countries, including Canada, have reported cases of the new variant.

But mass vaccination campaigns are underway in the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union, among other countries and regions, bringing a sense of a light at the end of the tunnel.

There have been more than 80.9 million cases of the coronavirus recorded worldwide since the pandemic began, with more than 1.77 million deaths.