ALBANY, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — New York hospitals across the state have started testing specifically for a new and seemingly more infectious strain of the coronavirus that has prompted lockdowns in England and travel bans in Europe.
"There are tests that can test for the variant," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday. "It is a complex test, but the higher lab capacity hospitals in the state can perform it."
Cuomo said the state is working with hospital systems across the state including Montefiore, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Northwell Health, University of Rochester, Albany Medical, and Greater New York Hospital Association.
The state laboratory in Wadsworth is coordinating the effort.
The state is also reaching out to Upstate Medical and ECMC Hospital.
"The Department of Health is working with labs across the state. Any hospital that has the lab capacity to take the test we will be providing them with the ability and the testing reagents," Cuomo said. "The protocol is if we find the variant, we want to know where it is immediately and then we will take it from there."
Cuomo said so far about 4,000 tests have already been conducted and so far "they haven't found anything."
The governor has been raising alarms about the COVID strain, which British health officials say could be 70% more contagious.
"We want to test for the variant, if it's here, we want to know it, we want to isolate it immediately," Cuomo said.
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It's unclear whether the strain is more lethal, but health officials in the U.K. expressed confidence that the vaccines now being rolled out would still be effective against it.
Cuomo fears the strain could easily be brought to New York by someone flying in from the U.K. into John F. Kennedy Airport.
The governor sees the situation as a sequel to what happened in the spring, when travel from Europe allowed the virus to spread throughout New York and the country for weeks.
"We have no evidence at this point that it is in this state, we do know it has been moving globally, chances are if it's been moving globally it came here and again that was the lesson from the spring," Cuomo said. "But if it is here I want to know exactly where it is, and contact trace immediately from that point back, and then isolate it immediately. This is about time and urgency, and this would be urgent, and that's why we're mobilizing every hospital lab in the state that can perform this test to perform this test."
On Monday, the governor said British Airways, Delta and Virgin Atlantic have agreed to require COVID-19 tests before flights leave the U.K. for New York.