New York State Team
Hospitals and labs are conducting tests to determine if a new strain, or variant, of coronavirus currently spreading across the United Kingdom has arrived in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.
So far, about 4,000 tests in New York have returned zero positives for the new strain, which health officials in the U.K. said is much more infectious than earlier versions that have killed more than 317,000 Americans, Cuomo said.
The effort to test for the new strain in New York comes after three airlines on Monday agreed to require negative COVID-19 test results of all travelers boarding flights from the U.K. to New York state airports.
New York State Team
About 38,000 New Yorkers have received the COVID-19 vaccine as the historic immunization effort expanded into nursing homes to protect the most vulnerable frail and elderly people, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.
The initial wave of vaccinations that began last week in New York focused exclusively on health care workers on the pandemic battle s front line, with hospitals overseeing the inoculations.
Nursing homes statewide began receiving vaccinations Monday morning through a federal government program that relied upon CVS, Walgreens and other pharmacies to provide the shots to residents and staff, according to Cuomo.
The developments came as New York was poised to receive new shipments this week of COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech as well as Moderna, totaling 630,000 doses. Both of the vaccines require two doses for each person, which New York will be providing in the coming weeks.