Gov: L.I. man infected with U.K. COVID strain
The highly contagious COVID-19 variant first found in the United Kingdom has surfaced on Long Island, Gov. Cuomo said Saturday.
A 64-year-old Massapequa man was diagnosed with the dreaded strain Friday, the governor said.
Experts say the U.K. variant is more transmissible than the coronavirus already wreaking havoc in the United States.
The Nassau County man was one of three New Yorkers who tested positive for the new variant Friday, bringing the total number of infected in the state to four.
Two additional cases of the mutated virus were found in Saratoga Springs, where the first New York case was announced on Monday.
The Long Island case is not connected with the Saratoga Springs cluster, Cuomo said.
The Massapequa man was diagnosed with COVID-19 through a private lab Dec. 27. The sample was sent to the Wadsworth Center in Albany for further testing, where it was identified as the U.K. strain, officials said.
The state Health Department is working with contact tracers on Long Island to identify any other potential exposures.
Fifty-five people have now been infected with the virulent strain across the country.
“This is a situation where the federal government was asleep at the switch,” Cuomo said Saturday.
“A bunch of countries tested for it when it surfaced and New York required testing for the U.K. variant, but the nation did nothing.”
The Saratoga Springs cluster centered around a worker at N. Fox Jewelers — although the employee, who’s in his 60s, hadn’t traveled abroad, officials said.
Five other store employees tested positive for COVID-19, but only two — the ones diagnosed Friday — had the new kind, officials said.
New York State reached a single-day record for coronavirus tests with 258,000 people getting swabbed.
The state infection rate was at 6.5% Friday — down from 7.7% — with 188 dying of COVID complications on Friday, Cuomo said.
New York City had an infection rate of 6.2% Friday, authorities said.
Cuomo said vaccinations will expand to all public employees, including police officers and teachers, and residents older than 75 on Monday — but inoculating that many people could take about 14 weeks.
“Just because reservations [for these groups] will become available, don’t expect everyone will get a reservation,” Cuomo said, encouraging unions and municipalities to “prioritize certain workers in your workforce” to get the vaccine first.
“Prioritizing older teachers, teachers in classrooms, teachers in communities with higher infection rates,” Cuomo said. “That’s what the public employee unions should be thinking about.”