By Nikhila Natarajan

New York, Nov 19 (IANS): The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), emerging from its beaten and bruised avatar in the Donald Trump era, came out with a strong warning on Thursday for Americans not to travel during the Thanksgiving week, barely a week out.

The warning comes amid a renewed surge of coronavirus cases in the country. Hospitals are overwhelmed and doctors are begging people to mask up and hunker down.

The CDC is coming out with new guidlines on Thursday with detailed recommendations which will re-define the meaning of "household". It plans to explain that anyone not living in the same residence for a consecutive period of 14 days is not considered part of "household" for the purpose of Thanksgiving travel guidance.

The country is bracing for the winter weather, flu season and holiday travel, all of which are expected to amplify the domestic outbreak of Covid-19 that has already blown past 11.5 million cases and 250,000 deaths. The latest million cases have came in a record-smashing timeframe of less than a week.