New York City Mayor Renews Call for Ban of UK Flights Amid Spread of COVID-19 Variant

NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th January, 2021) New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio renewed his call on Wednesday for a ban on UK flights into the United States after more US states reported cases of the UK variant of the coronavirus.

"We need a travel ban immediately again," de Blasio told a live-streamed briefing. "There's Federal action on ensuring that anyone who gets on a plane has a negative test. But in the case of the UK, that's literally not enough. We need those flights canceled and we need to [have a] travel ban until the situation is greatly improved."

De Blasio called for a UK travel ban last week after the first case of the coronavirus variant, known as B.1.1.7, surfaced in New York. Since then, the variant, more transmissible than the original COVID-19 and triggering new lockdowns in Europe, has been detected in at least 10 US states.

Besides the B.1.1.7, researchers in Ohio said they have discovered two other variants of the coronavirus that likely originated in the United States, and that one quickly became the dominant strain in Columbus, the state's capital, over a three-week period in late December and early January.

New York City, along with the state of New York, were the biggest COVID-19 hotspots at the height of the pandemic's breakout in the first half of 2020.

At the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak in April, New York state had about 18,000 people in hospitals and there were roughly 800 people dying a day from complications caused by the virus. On Tuesday, there were 8,926 COVID-related hospitalizations in the state and 164 deaths of those infected.