Stop Brit bug invasion
Gov urges feds to restrict travel from U.K.
Gov. Cuomo on Sunday said federal officials should impose restrictions on travelers from the United Kingdom after British health officials confirmed a highly contagious variant of COVID-19 was rapidly spreading through the nation.
The reports of the new mutation — which researchers said is just as deadly as previous coronavirus strains but 70% more contagious — prompted U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday to reimpose heavy lockdown measures for much of the country and caused several European countries like the Netherlands and Belgium to ban travelers who enter from the U.K.
Cuomo said the U.S. should follow suit, noting that the COVID-19 outbreak in New York during the spring was able to spread rapidly in the state because it was being carried by travelers from Europe. He said federal regulators should at least require a negative COVID-19 test for those entering the U.S. from the U.K.
“It’s so apparently dangerous the U.K. imposed its own shutdown,” Cuomo said on a call with reporters. “You have 120 countries who demand that a test be taken on the U.K. side before a person gets on the flight to come to their country. The U.S. does not require it.”
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages the city’s three major airports, has no authority to impose travel restrictions on foreign travelers. Any travel restrictions must be enforced by the feds.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection in October piloted preflight COVID-19 tests for some travelers between Newark International Airport and London Heathrow. The feds partnered with a smartphone app called CommonPass with the goal of standardizing test result data that could be used by border officials across the globe.
But those preflight tests have not yet been rolled out across American airports and borders — and Cuomo warned it’s just a matter of time before the new variant of the virus makes its way to New York and the rest of the country.
“We have about six flights a day coming in from the U.K. [to New York], and we have done absolutely nothing,” said Cuomo. “All it takes is one person.”
Federal health officials have not yet confirmed a case of the new virus variant in the U.S., said state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker.
“The CDC is always testing on a regular basis and they’re looking for any mutations,” said Zucker. “They get the samples from around the country and they regularly test the virus for any mutation.”
But Cuomo said he’s skeptical the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has properly tracked the new variant.
“We have gotten so much wrong, and the experts have been so wrong on this that I take it all with a grain of salt,” the governor said.