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NEW YORK, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday that negative COVID-19 test results should be required not only for travelers from the United Kingdom but those from all countries, as infections of a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus that was initially discovered in the UK have been found in four U.S. states.

"How many times does the fed gov't have to learn the same lesson? They should require ALL internat'l travelers to test negative before entering the U.S.," he tweeted.

"We reached an agreement w/ carriers to require testing for NY-bound UK travelers. The fed gov't must expand it to all countries," he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted that "It's time to STOP the half measures. It's time for a travel ban on the United Kingdom."

"This new variant is tremendously troubling. We need to buy ourselves time to get the vaccinations done and protect our residents. Let's shut down the danger RIGHT NOW," he added.

New York State reported on Monday its first case of the more contagious variant of the coronavirus.

The case was identified in a 60-year-old man from Saratoga County who had no travel history, according to Cuomo.

New York is the fourth state in the country that has confirmed infection of the new strain, which has also been found in California, Florida and Colorado.

The variant is thought to be more transmissible but does not appear to make people more ill or increase the risk of death from COVID-19, experts have said.

While the variant does not appear to cause more severe disease in people who are infected and current vaccines should still work against it, it could lead to more hospitalizations as a result of an increase in cases, said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week.

The CDC implemented a new order in late December which requires air passengers arriving in the United States from the United Kingdom to test negative, no more than 72 hours before departure.

More new strains of the coronavirus are likely to make their way to the United States, said Michael Osterholm, member of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 advisory board, on Tuesday.

"And it's the first of what will likely be a number of these strains that are emerging as we're at this point in the pandemic," he added.

Total COVID-19 hospitalizations reached 8,590 on Monday in New York State, up from 8,251 on Sunday, tweeted Cuomo on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University reported 38,741 coronavirus deaths in New York State, the worst in the country.

The United States has recorded over 20.9 million cases with over 355,600 related deaths as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University. Enditem