IT’S HERE!
FIRST CASE OF CORONAVIRUS CONFIRMED IN NYC
A city woman who recently traveled to Iran is New York’s first confirmed coronavirus patient.
The woman, who’s in her late 30s, is isolated in her Manhattan apartment, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation.
The woman has respiratory symptoms but is not in serious condition, Gov. Cuomo announced Sunday night.
“There is no cause for surprise — this was expected. As I said from the beginning, it was a matter of when, not if there would be a positive case of novel coronavirus in New York,” Cuomo said.
“There is no reason for undue anxiety — the general risk remains low in New York. We are diligently managing this situation and will continue to provide information as it becomes available.”
City health officials have identified the people with whom the woman came into contact, City Hall said Sunday night.
“From the beginning, we have said it was a matter of when, not if there would be a positive case of coronavirus in New York,” Mayor de Blasio said. “Now our first case has been confirmed. The patient contracted the virus during recent travel and is isolated in her home under close monitoring.”
The city Health Department has been in a “state of high alert for weeks,” de Blasio said.
“Our disease detectives have already identified close contacts of the patient, who may have been exposed, and will take appropriate measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” city Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot said. “Despite this development, New Yorkers remain at low risk for contracting COVID-19. As we confront this emerging outbreak, we need to separate facts from fear, and guard against stigma and panic.”
Two people — a couple who had traveled to Iran, a major epicenter of the virus — were being tested for coronavirus in the city, health officials said earlier Sunday.
A spokeswoman for Mayor de Blasio couldn’t say Sunday night if either was the woman confirmed to have the virus.
The woman’s test was confirmed by the state’s Wadsworth Lab in Albany, Cuomo said, “underscoring the importance of the ability for our state to ensure efficient and rapid turnaround.”
Vice President Mike Pence, who’s running the White House response to the virus, granted New York approval to conduct its own tests Saturday, Cuomo said.
Another person tested negative for the virus, bringing the number of negative tests in the city to nine.
“We continue to have a consistent pattern with the cases we’ve seen presented in New York City,” de Blasio told reporters on the sidelines of the St. Pat’s for All parade in Sunnyside, Queens.
He added that results for the newest cases would be known by Monday at the latest.
On Saturday, the city announced it has the capacity to conduct its own coronavirus tests instead of sending samples to the feds.
“It took a long time to get there, and I don’t know why the federal government took so long, but I’ll take it,” the mayor said.
Iran’s official toll of coronavirus cases was 987 as of Sunday afternoon, according to reports. The death toll there reached 54. In Italy, site of another major outbreak, cases rose 50% Sunday, to 1,694 infected people. At least 34 have died.
Around the world, 3,000 people have died and more than 88,000 have been infected, according to an Associated Press tally of World Health Organization and national data.
With more than 70 cases confirmed in the U.S. as of Sunday, the Food and Drug Administration has expanded testing nationwide.
Washington State declared an emergency following the death of a man in his 50s on Saturday. It was the first fatality blamed on the coronavirus in the U.S. On Sunday, officials the death of a second Washington man in his 70s.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) called on the federal government to make a vaccine under development available for free to seniors on Medicare.
“As the race for a safe, effective and affordable vaccine nears the finish line, it is crucial to put the plans in place that guarantee seniors will be able to get it and afford it,” he said in a Sunday statement.
Congress is readying a multibillion-dollar funding package for the federal government’s coronavirus response.
Meanwhile, White House officials took to the Sunday talk shows to try to calm the public.
Americans “should know we have the best public health system in the world looking out for them,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on “Fox News Sunday.”