The highly contagious UK variant of the coronavirus has been detected in two New York City residents — one of whom recently traveled to the United Kingdom, Mayor Bill de Blasio revealed Wednesday.
Fifteen cases of the strain have been identified across the state as of Wednesday, and de Blasio said two of those cases involve the Big Apple residents, marking the first known cases in the city.
One of the patients is in Queens, the other Manhattan, officials said.
De Blasio noted that the city’s Test and Trace Corps “is engaged” with those two individuals.
The mayor, speaking during his daily City Hall press briefing, again urged the federal government to enact an immediate travel ban from the UK to the US.
“Here’s proof positive,” de Blasio said of the Big Apple cases. “Someone who was in the UK has brought the variant back here [to New York City]. We need that stopped.”
De Blasio continued, “Flights from the United Kingdom should be canceled immediately by the federal government.”
Hizzoner called the new federal requirement for international airline travelers to get a negative COVID-19 test before boarding flights to the US “not good enough.”
Four cases of the mutated COVID-19 strain have been found in Saratoga County, and two cases in Warren County have been identified as part of a cluster connected to a jewelry store in Saratoga Springs, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.
New York state’s first known case of the UK variant was detected earlier this month in a 60-year-old Saratoga Springs man who officials believe contracted the disease at a local jewelry store.
Three additional cases in Warren County are under investigation for their link to that cluster, but have yet to be confirmed, according to Cuomo.
The governor said a second cluster has also been identified and includes two cases in Suffolk County, two cases from Nassau County and the case from Queens.
The Manhattan case is not connected to either cluster, Cuomo said.