NEW YORK: New York City began requiring worldwide travelers to quarantine on Wednesday (Dec 23) to protect against a new variant of the coronavirus from the UK as the city’s next group of essential workers, paramedics, and different first responders, lined as much as getting the vaccine.
Mayor Bill de Blasio informed reporters that all worldwide travelers to New York City would start receiving a city order to quarantine, delivered through certified mail to homes and hotels and that deputies from the town sheriff’s office would visit travelers from the UK.
All worldwide travelers must present their contact info upon arriving within the city, and those found to be violating quarantine orders might be fined US$1,000 per day, de Blasio stated.
“There’s going to be a follow-up, direct home visit or hotel visit from the sheriff’s deputy to verify that they’re following the quarantine,” de Blasio stated.
The heightened warning in New York City, a world journey hub, comes as dozens of nations have closed their borders to Britain, and New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo requested airlines to screen British travelers for COVID-19 after the discovery of a new, highly transmissible variant of the virus there.
Drugmakers are racing to verify that newly developed vaccines will still be efficient against the virus variant, however, they and other health officers have expressed confidence.
The vaccines developed by Pfizer and BioNtech and Moderna were authorized for emergency use in America. The US government on Wednesday stated it will pay Pfizer almost US$2 billion to obtain 100 million further doses of its COVID-19 vaccine by July 2021.
“I FEEL RELIEVED”
New York City’s vaccine rollout started on Dec 14 with the first group of healthcare employees getting the shot. The trouble expanded on Wednesday to another group of high-priority essential employees: first responders at the Fire Department of New York City (FDNY).
About 6,000 of the fire department’s 17,000 personnel have contracted the virus this yr, New York City Fireplace Commissioner Dan Nigro informed reporters.
More than 400 FDNY paramedics lined up to obtain their first doses of the Moderna vaccine on Wednesday, together with Verena Kansog, advanced life support coordinator for Manhattan, who got her shot at the FDNY training center on Randalls Island.
“I really feel relieved,” stated Kansog, who worried about bringing the disease home to her aged mom.
“I used to be not one single bit nervous,” she stated in a phone interview.
Almost 30,000 COVID-19 vaccinations have been administered in New York City as of Wednesday, according to the town health department.
The department reported its first instance of a major allergic reaction to the vaccine on Wednesday however emphasized that such reactions are rare. The affected healthcare employee was in steady situation.
