ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS ...
BLAZ, ANDY URGE CALM IN BUG PANIC CITY
New York officials sought to quell panic and put people’s minds at ease Monday as they offered details about the city’s first case of coronavirus and warned more will come down with the illness in the coming days.
Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio said the city and state are ramping up efforts to combat the fast-spreading virus as the 39-year-old Manhattan woman who recently returned from Iran remains isolated in her home with “respiratory symptoms,” but is not in serious condition.
“In this situation, the facts defeat fear because the reality is reassuring,” Cuomo said during a joint event with the mayor in Manhattan. “It is deep-breath time. This is not our first rodeo with this type of situation in New York.”
Since it first emerged in China there have been more than 89,000 coronavirus cases and 3,048 deaths in 60 countries worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
The U.S. has at least 100 confirmed cases, and a total of six people have died from the disease in Washington State, officials said.
The city patient, a health care worker, returned to New York last Tuesday after working abroad in Iran, where the number of reported coronavirus cases has topped 1,500 and 66 people have died.
She “was very aware of the situation and the potential for the situation” while traveling with her husband, who is also isolated as officials believe he will also test positive for the illness, Cuomo said.
While the woman was not symptomatic and unlikely to have been contagious during her return trip, officials “out of an abundance of caution” are reaching out to others who were on the same flight as well as the person who drove the couple home from the airport.
The governor said the pair did “textbook” everything right by limiting their exposure to others and getting tested as soon as possible, adding that it was a good sign that the woman is quarantined at home and not in need of hospitalization.
“She doesn’t need a hospital,” Cuomo said. “The case that tested positive should be an affirmation. She’s positive, and she’s home, because she doesn’t need to be in a hospital.”
Both Cuomo and de Blasio warned that there will be
more cases in the state.
“No doubt, there will be more cases where we find more people who test positive. We said early on it wasn’t a matter of if, but when. New York is the gateway to the world,” Cuomo said.
De Blasio encouraged anyone who fears they may have been exposed to the illness to reach out for help and said that there are more than 1,200 hospital beds at the ready in the city should they be needed.
“Don’t hesitate to get to a doctor or a health care facility,” the mayor said. “If you can call first, that’s ideal and helpful. We all know a lot of people, particularly New Yorkers, tend to shrug things off. If you have the symptoms … get to health care right away.”
The state plans to step up its testing capabilities, and the city will have its own testing system in place by Friday, officials said. De Blasio later said on 1010 WINS that the city will be ready to start testing Monday afternoon.
Cuomo, who has already requested $40 million in emergency funds from the Legislature and convinced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to allow New York to do in-state testing, wants to be able to conduct at least 1,000 tests for the virus per day within a week.
Tests can be turned around in the state in a matter of hours, as opposed to days when being sent out to a federal lab, the governor said.
State and city officials said they are also implementing new cleaning protocols for schools, public transportation systems and senior citizen facilities.
“They will use a disinfectant, many will use bleach, which is a good protocol in flu season, anyway,” Cuomo said. “It’s all about reducing the spread, not eliminating the spread.”