New York governor Andrew Cuomo calls for UK flight ban over Covid fears

Many of the European countries have already closed their borders for travellers from the UK

File image:  Many of the UK’s neighbours have stopped flights from the country  (Getty Image)

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has sought a ban on flights coming from the United Kingdom after Boris Johnson revealed that a new coronavirus strain that has led to the shutting down of London, is up to 70 per cent more transmissible. 

Mr Cuomo said it is “reprehensible and grossly negligent” to allow UK travellers to fly into the New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport without testing. He said a Covid-19 test should be “minimum,” if not a ban.  

“Right now, this variant in the UK is getting on a plane and flying to JFK. We have about six flights a day coming in from the UK. And we have done absolutely nothing. And all it takes is one person,” he said on Sunday.

“To me, this is reprehensible, because this is what happens in the spring,” the New York Post quoted him as saying.

“120 countries require testing, we don’t. Other European countries have done a ban, we haven’t. The port authority has no authority to ban passengers, health monitor passengers. It’s federal. Doing nothing is negligent. It’s grossly negligent. How many times in life do you have to make the same mistake before you learn?” Mr Cuomo said.

Italy has already detected a patient infected with the new strain of the coronavirus found in Britain.

Mr Cuomo emphasised that there is only a “working assumption” about the effectiveness of Covid-19 against the new strain. “The experts have been so wrong… I take it all with a grain of salt, to tell you the truth.”

The US assistant secretary for health, Admiral Brett Giroir, however, stressed that he did not think “there should be any reason for alarm right now,” ABC News reported.  

The New York governor is not alone in seeking strict measures, including a possible ban, on travellers from the UK which has over two million cases of Covid-19 including over 67,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Following the announcement of Mr Johnson, many of the UK’s neighbours such as France, Germany, Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, Turkey and Switzerland have closed their borders to travellers from the UK. The United Kingdom is itself staring at strict restrictions or a lockdown for months.  

According to the reports, restriction on travel has led to hundreds of passengers struggling for the flight to Dublin, Ireland.