With summer vacations ahead, doctors warn of rising COVID-19 cases

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Now that Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, all eyes are looking to summer.

"I think we'll go to Florida, Key West, and we actually, my husband, kids and I, want to go to Europe for a couple of weeks," said Nataliya Vorovey, of Lower Moreland.

Jim Schnur of Fuqua Varina, North Carolina, said he's cautious about COVID-19, but it's not stopping him from hopping state to state to see his favorite baseball teams.

"You're always thinking about it," said Schnur. "It's always there, let's face it. But you just got to live your life. You cannot stop living your life because of the pandemic."

COVID-19 cases are on the rise, according to the 6abc Data Journalism Team. As of yesterday, in Pennsylvania, there were 3,900 cases, whereas one month ago, there were about 1,800. Cases are also up in New Jersey and Delaware.

"Cases are starting to go up again, but not nearly to the height that we saw in the wintertime with the Omicron surge," said Dr. Marci Drees, chief infection prevention officer at ChristianaCare.

Drees said no one knows how the virus may mutate in the future, but it's possible another variant may emerge.

"I think we're all hoping that as it continues to mutate, it gets milder and milder and milder until it does become like any other human coronavirus, which does cause the common cold," said Drees. "We're certainly not there yet. We're still seeing hundreds of deaths every day, thousands of hospitalizations a day in the U.S."

With the pandemic raging on for more than two years, some people said they feel protected and safe enough to travel.

"We got vaccines and we got our booster shot, the kids didn't though, so, I think we're ready to go and we also had COVID," said Vorovey.

But some people said they are still taking precautions.

"I'm still wearing my mask when I'm inside buildings," said Kyrie Goodwin of Ogontz. "I have all my vaccines and shots and I'm still trying to be as safe as I can."