Thread by @yaneerbaryam

Airlines Meet Cuomo's Ask:

Three major airlines that fly UK to NY daily agreed to ensure travelers provide negative COVID test

"If it's been flying around the world, it will be here." the governor said

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nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavir…

"This is another disaster waiting to happen," Cuomo said Monday. "If U.K. closed down, if 120 countries require testing, if Canada left a plane on the tarmac because it wouldn't allow it to deboard, if other European countries are banning travel, why are we doing nothing?

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"This would be it. This would the second wave. This would be a mutated virus coming back," Cuomo said Monday. He said the federal government should halt travel between the countries until more is understood about this latest strain

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"New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also said Monday the federal government should implement an all-out European travel ban given heightened concerns.

"We can't handle another spike, so we need to, for all of us, be careful,"

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"New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, whose state is also home to a major international travel hub, said he shares the concern. He flat out told people not to travel, "period," a dogma he has recited multiple times over the last month and a half.

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"We can't put it more plainly. This is not the year for Christmas as usual or New Year's as usual," Murphy said Monday as he extended New Jersey's public health emergency another 30 days to prevent its expiration. "We cannot take the risk."

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"the new variant has so far been identified in Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia. The Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Germany and France have all barred flights from the U.K.

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"the new variant is “significantly more transmissible,” there is no indication that infections are more severe. Experts, however, have stressed that even if the new strain is not more lethal, it is inevitable that more infections will lead to more hospitalizations and deaths.

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