Travellers to NY from Covid-19 hotspots need to provide contact info

Travellers flying to New York state from other states with high COVID-19 infection rates are required to provide contact information starting on Tuesday.

Travellers flying to New York state from other states with high COVID-19 infection rates are required to provide contact information starting on Tuesday, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo.

A travel enforcement operation commences at airports across the state, and enforcement teams will greet arriving passengers from those states and request a completed form with their basic information, the governor said at Monday's briefing, Xinhua news agency reported.

Travellers who leave the airport without completing the form, which is distributed by airliners before arrival, will be subject to a US $2,000 fine and even a mandatory quarantine, the governor said.

Travellers coming to New York from designated states through trains and cars must also fill out the form online, according to the governor's office.

Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio and Wisconsin have met the metrics to qualify for the travel advisory, bringing the total number of on the quarantine-restricted list to 22, the office said on Tuesday.

Of the 60,045 tests conducted in New York state on Monday, 912, or 1.5 per cent, were positive, bringing the statewide total to 403,175. The rate was a little bit higher than those recorded in the past two weeks, which were around 1 per cent.

Cuomo said in a press release on Tuesday that many of the new cases in the state are a result of a lack of compliance during the July 4 weekend. For example, he said, more than one-third of attendees of a party got infected with COVID-19.

Fauci sidelined by the White House despite coronavirus surge: Report

Despite his leading role in the US' fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, America's top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci has been sidelined by the White House

Despite his leading role in the US' fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, America's top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci has been sidelined by the White House, according to a media report.

Citing a senior White House official, The Washington Post report said on Sunday that Fauci "no longer briefs (President Donald) Trump and is never in the Oval (Office) anymore", Xinhua news agency reported.

According to The Washington Post report, Fauci has not spoken to Trump since "the first week of June".

Since the pandemic hit the US, the Trump administration and especially the President himself have had strained relations with the scientist over the country's coronavirus policy, it said.

In recent days, with coronavirus infections and death surging in most US states, Fauci, whose TV appearances were reportedly "scuttled" by the White House, has been more critical of the country's response to the pandemic.

In a live stream event on July 7, Fauci warned against a "false narrative" of a falling COVID-19-related death rate even as Trump continued to tout alleged progress the US had made in tackling the COVID-19 outbreak by citing a falling U.S. mortality rate.

In another interview with The Hill news website on July 9, Fauci said that hard-hit US states should pause moving forward with reopening their economies.

"I would think we need to get the states pausing in their opening process, looking at what did not work well and try to mitigate that," he said.

However, Fauci stopped short of calling for full lockdowns.