Governor Cuomo: "[T]he federal government should mandate testing of all international travelers who come into this country, period. Secretary Azar, CDC Director Dr. Redfield, we made this mistake last spring, which is how the COVID virus came here. It didn't come here from China, it came from Europe and they were asleep at the switch. We have to test all international travelers. I can't do that as a state, only the federal government can do that. I don't have the legal authority to stop international travel, but every traveler should be tested. I don't know what we're waiting for."
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on MSNBC Live with Katy Tur.
AUDIO is available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:
Katy Tur: A more contagious strain of the virus has been detected in the State of New York. Joining us now is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Governor, thank you so much for calling in and joining us today, we appreciate it. This new strain has been found, I believe in Saratoga. What are we doing in this State to try to contain it?
Governor Cuomo: Well, Katy we have found the U.K. strain. First of all, we have been very aggressive about testing in the state, as you know and we have been aggressive about testing for the U.K. strain. We're the fourth state. We're doing very comprehensive what we call, contact tracing. We know where it is, we know who has been exposed and now we're doing the detective work, if you will, to find out who else may have been exposed.
My guess is this has been here before and it's more prevalent in the United States than we think. The test for this virus is very cumbersome, it takes CDCtwo weeks to run a test for the U.K. strain. In our state lab it takes about 40 hours. You have to really look at it to find it, but it was inevitable. We knew that the U.K. strain was out there. 140 countries banned U.K. travel or mandated testing and this country did nothing. The South African strain is even more dangerous than the U.K. strain - and there will be other strains. I have said repeatedly, and I called on the federal government.
Katy Tur: We have such limited time. Mayor de Blasio wants to shut down travel from the U.K. entirely. Do you support him in that?
Governor Cuomo: I took it a step further, Katy. I said yesterday that the federal government should mandate testing of all international travelers who come into this country, period. Secretary Azar, CDC Director Dr. Redfield, we made this mistake last spring, which is how the COVID virus came here. It didn't come here from China, it came from Europe and they were asleep at the switch.
We then had this U.K. strain a few weeks ago. 140 countries banned it, we did nothing. We have to test all international travelers. I can't do that as a state, only the federal government can do that. I don't have the legal authority to stop international travel, but every traveler should be tested. I don't know what we're waiting for. We started with U.K, we have seen it with the South Africa strain. We'll see it with other strains, they're all predicting.
Katy Tur: I'm out of time, but I want to ask you about the vaccine, why it's going so slowly here. Do you have an answer on how we're going to pick things up in this state?
Governor Cuomo: Vaccines will be distributed more quickly. We have a supply issue. We have about, so far 900,000 vaccines have been received. We have 2 million health care workers, they are the first tranche. So the vaccine will be getting out, our distribution will be ahead of the supply. We're going to need more supply, that's going to be the question going forward.
Katy Tur: Governor Andrew Cuomo, I'm sorry I don't have more time with you because I do have a few more questions, but thank you for joining us. We do appreciate it.
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