NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday that a new variant of the coronavirus in the U.K. that has prompted lockdowns in England and travel bans in Europe “kept me up last night” and that the federal government isn’t doing enough to stop the highly contagious strain from reaching the U.S.
“Right now, this variant in the U.K. is getting on a plane and flying to JFK (Airport),” Cuomo said on a conference call with reporters.
Officials in the U.K. said the new strain could be 70% more contagious but that it doesn’t appear to be any more deadly. They believe current COVID vaccines should work against it.
France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and Bulgaria all announced restrictions on U.K. travel Sunday, hours after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that Christmas shopping and gatherings in southern England must be canceled because of rapidly spreading infections blamed on the new variant.
Cuomo said he wants to see the federal government impose new rules on travel from the U.K. He said that could include testing people arriving to the U.S. from there or banning travel all together.
“We have about six flights a day coming in from the U.K. and we have done absolutely nothing,” Cuomo said.
The governor sees the situation as a sequel to what happened in the spring, when travel from Europe was allowed for far too long, allowing the virus to spread uncontrollably throughout New York and the country for weeks.
“How many times in life do you have to make the same mistake before you learn?” Cuomo said. “Other European countries have done a ban. We haven’t. Doing nothing is negligent.”
The governor said the new variant hasn’t yet been detected in New York.
“That is what kept me up last night,” Cuomo said. “We do not have any evidence.”
Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said the Centers for Disease Control is looking for mutations on a regular basis and that he’s been in contact with them but that the variant hasn’t been observed by New York officials.
New York state reported another 9,957 coronavirus cases on Sunday, 5.05% of the 197,251 tests conducted statewide Saturday.
Hospitalizations statewide declined by 23 to 6,185.
The number of patients in ICU also dropped by 43 to 1,045, while the number of patients intubated declined by 10 to 600.
The state reported another 123 deaths, marking the fourth day in a row it has reported over 120 daily deaths.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday there were 182 new hospitalizations and 2,632 new cases in New York City.
The city’s seven-day positivity rate rose from 6.22% on Saturday to 6.25%.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.