Despite pleas from public health officials, millions of people traveled for Christmas. The TSA says holiday travel was the busiest since the pandemic began.

Right now hospitals across the tri-state are already seeing an uptick in coronavirus cases. But are we about to see a surge in cases, like we had in the Spring?

Dr. Thomas McGinn joined News 12's Elizabeth Hashagen this morning to discuss a potential surge in cases. Dr. McGinn is the executive vice president of Physician Enterprise at Common Spirit Health.

Health officials expect coronavirus cases to rise after many Americans ignored warnings about holiday travel and gatherings. The holidays will cause reporting delays, gaps, backlogs and general slowdown of COVID-19 data. This likely won't stabilize until sometime in mid-January. Dr. McGinn talks about the spread of the virus in the video below:

As the U.S. prepares to handle that potential holiday surge, hospitals across the country have reported more than 100,000 patients for the 26th day in a row.

December has been a devastating month for coronavirus spread in the country. More than 63,000 Americans have died so far this month, the most since the pandemic began, bringing the total to more than 333,000 people lost to the virus in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

NY hospitalization rate reached a seven-month high. About 7,183 New Yorkers are hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms statewide, the health data showed. New York's hospitalization numbers have been below 7,000 since May 11, according to the health data. Statewide hospitalizations peaked at 18,825 on April 12, when New York was the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., the health data showed.

There's a strain that's coming from the U.K. We are hearing they are similar, but not entirely the same type of mutation that we're seeing in South Africa.

Canada reports cases of U.K. COVID-19 variant - two people in Canada have the new, more contagious strain of COVID-19. They are a couple. They have not been traveling. They did not have any exposure to anyone who was at high risk. Below is what Dr. McGinn has to say about the mutation:

This year, infectious disease experts, scientists and medical professionals have worked tirelessly to try and figure out how this previously unknown virus is transmitted, how to prevent it from spreading and how to treat it. What do you think are the most important things we've learned about this virus over time. Below is what Dr. McGinn has to say about virus transmission: