New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo instructed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City this week to figure out a way to disinfect the subway trains every 24 hours.

The news here is not so much the governor’s request but the fact that New York City was not already doing daily cleanings of the trains that shuttle millions of riders back and forth every day. It is additionally newsworthy that it took a request from the governor in late April for transportation officials even to consider coming up with a 24-hour strategy for disinfecting the city’s sprawling germ tubes.