OHIO — A new survey from AAA shows a majority of Ohioans plan to stay home this Thanksgiving, citing COVID-19 concerns. 

Out of the nearly 900 residents surveyed, 84% said they plan to stay home and nearly half of that number cited the pandemic as the reason why. However, 60% said they weren't planning to travel anyways. 

As health experts urge Americans not to gather this Thanksgiving to curb the spread of COVID-19, some Ohioans are taking the advice seriously. Around 34% of those surveyed are calling the risk of catching COVID-19 this holiday season "significant." 

Of those who still plan to travel, more than 80% will be flying and less than 20% will be driving. 

Dr. Henry Walke, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID-19 incident manager, gave a press briefing Thursday in an attempt to remind Americans about the dangers behind COVID-19. 

"The tragedy that could happen is that one of your family members from coming to this family gathering and they could end up severely ill, hospitalized or dying. And we don’t want that to happen," Walke said. 

He added that it's understandable why families would want to see each other this holiday season, but encourages them to abstain and keep members healthy to continue seeing them for years to come. 

Nationally, there is expected to be far less traffic on the roads this year compared to last year. AAA estimates 50 million Americans will be traveling this year, which is 5 million less than in 2019. 

As many people are still planning to board planes or hit the road, the U.S. is reporting record numbers of daily cases and deaths. On Friday, the U.S. documented 195,500 new cases — a record-high spike. Ohio also smashed it's previous record of daily cases, documenting 8,808 cases. 

More than 82,100 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 across the nation, and more than 1,500 people are dying every day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University and the COVID-19 Tracking Project.