Infected lawyer visited court, had no symptoms
The New Rochelle lawyer with coronavirus whose illness has spread to family, friends and neighbors visited Brooklyn’s Civil Supreme Court just over two weeks ago, the Daily News has learned.
The 50-year-old attorney was in Brooklyn court for a hearing with a client, the Office of Court Administration confirmed to The News.
“The judge’s court attorney who met with the [lawyer] before the hearing reported this to us Tuesday,” a spokesman for OCA told The News. “While not symptomatic, she contacted the New York City Department of Health’s coronavirus hotline and after discussion with the hotline was told that since her contact with [him] was more than 14 days prior and she has experienced no symptoms, there is no need for alarm or testing.”
It was not immediately clear if the attorney was symptomatic when he visited the courthouse. He was hospitalized nine days later.
The lawyer has been linked to nearly all of the coronavirus cases in the state, authorities said. He infected a neighbor who drove him to a hospital, as well as his own wife, son and daughter, who are all selfquarantined.
The infected man, currently hospitalized in critical condition at a Manhattan hospital, checked into a suburban hospital on Feb. 27 with respiratory problems that remained undiagnosed until four days later.
The virus, COVID-19, takes between two and 14 days to show symptoms, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Two staffers at the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, meanwhile, were sent home for possible exposure to coronavirus, The News confirmed Thursday. A memo to employees at the prosecutor’s office the day before said that two people in the office were told not to come to work until next week because of possible exposure to the virus.
There are about 550 prosecutors who work for the Brooklyn DA. None of them have tested positive for the illness. Neither of the two employees who were sent home has tested positive for the illness, nor have any members of their families.
The Brooklyn district attorney’s office declined to comment on the memo.