There were already 10,000 Covid cases when we reported our first; came from Europe: NY Guv

As the US is struggling to contain the COVID-19 pandemic with New York being the worst affected state in the country, New York governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday cited research from Northeastern University and said that COVID-19 entered New York from Europe and not China. He believed the source of COVID-19 in New York came from Italy.

Cuomo said pointing at the research that US President Donald Trump was too late in imposing the travel ban as over 10,000 New Yorkers had already contracted the disease by the time the state had its first confirmed case on March 1.

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'Horse already left the barn'

“We acted two months 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 told a news briefing adding “The horse had already left the barn by the time we moved.”

The governor noted that Trump ordered a ban on travel from China on February 2, more than a month after news reports had emerged about an outbreak in China, and decided to restrict travel from Europe the following month. By that time, the virus had spread widely in the United States, he said.

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New York Governor on Friday announced the cancellation of the 50th State Senate District special election that was scheduled for June 23. The special election between Democrat John Mannion and Republican Angela Renna was being held to fill the seat vacated by Republican Robert Antonacci.

The total number of COVID-19 positive cases in the US states at 890,524 of over 51,000 have succumbed to the virus according to John Hopkins University. Of the total deaths in the country, 16,646 have been reported to New York alone. The US President has blamed China for being discreet in its approach and hiding the severity of the situation due to which the virus became a global crisis.