COVID-19: US Travel Bans Came Too Late For NYC Metro Area, CDC Says, Echoing Cuomo Statements

After months of criticizing the federal government for issuing a travel ban for Chinese residents while COVID-19 cases were actually pouring into the New York metro area from Europe, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been vindicated.

Now, the government's main agency handling the crisis agrees with that assessment.

A new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) determined that by the time the federal government placed travel restrictions on Europe, it was already too late, and the virus had taken a stranglehold in the region.

The federal government restricted travel from China early in February, but waited until mid-March, at which point millions of travelers had already gone through airports in the tristate area, to restrict travel from Europe, whose travelers were bringing the virus with them.

“The federal government didn’t do the European travel ban until March 16," Cuomo previously said, "so between January, February, March, how many flights flew into JFK and how many people came here? Three million.