NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd December, 2020) New York City will enforce a quarantine of all travelers from Britain to contain the spread of a new strain of COVID-19, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday.
UK's health agency announced last week that a new highly-contagious strain of COVID-19 had been detected in southeast England.
"We're going to have sheriff deputies go to the home or the hotel of every single traveler coming in from the UK," de Blasio told a live-streamed briefing. "There's going to be a follow-up, direct home or hotel visit from the sheriff's deputy to confirm that they are following the quarantine, or if they are not, they will be penalized."
De Blasio said sheriff deputies will also station at airports, train stations and bus depots. Law enforcement has already been pulling people over on highways and some 10,000 vehicle stops have already been done, the mayor said.
"We are going to be doing that intensively during this holiday season up through the weekend after January 1," de Blasio said.
He said those found to have violated quarantine could be fined a minimum $1,000 and an additional $1,000 for each day they did not quarantine.
"We will collect those penalties," the mayor said. "We are really serious about the fact that if you violate quarantine you are creating a danger for everyone else."
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also said he has enlisted the help of British Airways, Delta Airlines and Virgin Atlantic to pre-screen passengers coming into New York from UK locations. The Trump administration, so far, has not announced any Federal ban on UK travelers.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced last week that a new strain of COVID-19, later identified as VUI-202012/01, had been identified in southeast England. The new variant is believed to be more easily transmitted than previously-identified strains of the disease.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Tuesday that the new strain may already be present in America, undetected. Dozens of countries across Europe and beyond have barred UK-originating travelers since news broke of the second COVID-19 strain.
