Some 60,000 people are caught in the crossfire of a bitter contract dispute between United Healthcare and the Montefiore Health System, with a negotiating impasse leaving one-time customers seeking new options to fill the void.
The state-run Wadsworth Laboratory in Albany has looked at more than 3,700 coronavirus sequences identified in New York, but has yet to find the U.K. variant present in any of the samples, according to a statement released by the governor s office.
Further, Wadsworth and the Department of Health have forged agreements with six hospitals statewide, including University of Rochester Medical Center, to obtain additional samples and is continuing to make arrangements with other hospitals to do the same.
Other downstate hospital systems currently participating included Bronx-based Montefiore, Northwell Health s location on Long Island, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Albany Medical Center and Saratoga Hospital, the statement noted.
New York State Team
Hospitals and labs are conducting tests to determine if a new strain, or variant, of coronavirus currently spreading across the United Kingdom has arrived in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.
So far, about 4,000 tests in New York have returned zero positives for the new strain, which health officials in the U.K. said is much more infectious than earlier versions that have killed more than 317,000 Americans, Cuomo said.
The effort to test for the new strain in New York comes after three airlines on Monday agreed to require negative COVID-19 test results of all travelers boarding flights from the U.K. to New York state airports.