Millions of Americans decided to travel over the long Labor Day weekend, despite outbreaks of Covid-19 nationwide. Airports saw passenger numbers jump Thursday and Friday, government data shows, even though Hurricane Ida and its remnants canceled flights across the Northeast and the South, including hundreds in New Orleans. Tens of millions are hitting the roads, too—undeterred by having to pay significantly more at the pump. The average price of a gallon, according to GasBuddy, is $3.19, up a dollar from last year and about 65 cents from 2019—the last Labor Day before the pandemic. Travelers passing through airport checkpoints Thursday and Friday added up to 4 million—1.9 million Thursday and 2.1 million Friday, according to the Transportation Security Administration. The numbers for both dates more than doubled from last year but still didn’t match 2019 totals. The 2019 figures for Sept. 2 and 3—Thursday and Friday—were 2.1 million and 2.2 million, respectively. The TSA emphasized safety precautions against Covid, particularly the fast-spreading, highly contagious Delta variant that is surging in several states in the Southeast. “As the summer draws to an end, we are experiencing continued concern over the COVID-19’s Delta variant and its impact on healthy and secure travel,” TSA spokesman R. Carter Langston told Barron’s in an email Saturday. “We encourage all TSA employees and those who work and pass through the nation’s transportation system to consider being vaccinated and to follow CDC guidance regarding face masks.” Roughly 43 million Americans are putting the rubber to the road—a 1% dip from last year and a 10% drop from 2019, according to Arrivalist. The location data company cited the Delta variant as the reason fewer Americans are willing to travel over the long weekend. Early in the week, the chief of the government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had a clear message for Americans who haven’t vaccinated against Covid: Stay home. “First and foremost, if you are unvaccinated, we would recommend not traveling,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters at a White House briefing Tuesday. Walensky said the fully vaccinated—wearing masks—could travel but should consider weigh the risk of the Delta variant “as they think about traveling.” The current seven-day average number of new Covid cases in the U.S. is 153,246, up from the previous seven-day average of 146,087, CDC data shows. The total number of cases reported: 39,488,866 More than half of Americans—52,7%— are fully vaccinated, and 62% have received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to the CDC. Both those numbers are up about 1% from last week.