Coronavirus came to NY from Europe, not China: Governor
25 April, 2020
NY Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday pointed to research showing that strains of the novel coronavirus entered his state from Europe, not China, and said that travel bans enacted by US President Donald Trump were too late to prevent its spread.
Cuomo cited research from Northeastern University estimating that a lot more than 10,000 New Yorkers may have contracted the condition by enough time the state had its first confirmed case on March 1. He said he believed Italy was the likely source.
The governor noted that Trump ordered a ban on travel from China on Feb. 2, greater than a month after news reports had emerged about an outbreak in the location of Wuhan, and made a decision to restrict travel from Europe the next month. By that time, the virus had spread widely in america, he said.
"We closed leading door with the China travel ban, that was right," Cuomo told a briefing. "But we left the trunk door open for the reason that virus had left China by enough time we did the China travel ban."
Along with his comments, Cuomo thrust himself into a heated and politically fraught debate about when and how the virus first entered america and whether officials like Trump and himself could have saved more lives if indeed they had acted sooner.
Cuomo defended his own actions by pointing to the 19 days between New York's first confirmed case and his lockdown order, arguing that he previously moved faster than any other state.
He also said Trump, who the other day halted US contributions to the World Health Organization after accusing it of promoting China's "disinformation" about the outbreak, was to question if the WHO responded properly to the crisis.
But Cuomo took aim at what he referred to as a slow reaction by the country's leaders, even while increasingly disturbing reports emerged out of China in January and February about how precisely quickly the virus was spreading and killing people.
Cuomo said as many as 2.2 million persons took flights from Europe to New York and NJ airports in those two months, many of them likely carrying the highly contagious respiratory illness COVID-19.
"We acted 8 weeks after the China outbreak. When you look back, does anyone think the virus was still in China waiting for us to act two months later?" Cuomo said. "The horse had already left the barn by enough time we moved."
Cuomo said it had been important that the united states learns from the mistakes which were made for the reason that virus could surge again in autumn or a fresh virus could emerge. "It'll happen again. Bank onto it. Let's not put our head in the sand," he said.
He said it had been prematurily . to reopen his state, which is in lockdown until at least May 15. He said the three-day rolling average for folks newly admitted for COVID-19 was holding stubbornly around 1,300 per day, a worrisome sign.
But on a positive note, he said hospitalizations for COVID-19 totaled 14,258 on Thursday, declining for the tenth straight day. He reported 422 additional deaths, the cheapest daily total since March 31.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
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