UPDATED 3/2, 2:35 p.m. ET: Following the confirmation of New York's first case of the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has warned that the virus is expected to spread in NYC. "Community spread is going to be real," said Cuomo on Monday at a press conference with Mayor Bill De Blasio. "That is inevitable."
Speaking on CBS This Morning, Cuomo added that the patient was a 39-year-old health care worker, and as a result "she knew to take precautions and stay in a controlled situation." He said she has not used public transport since she returned to New York from Iran. "Out of an abundance of caution, we’ll be contacting people who were on the flight with her from Iran to New York and the driver for that car service [from the airport]," Cuomo continued.
Due to the rising concerns of the virus, he said the state will employ new cleaning protocols in busy public spaces. "If it smells like bleach when you get on a bus or when a child goes to school, it is not bad cologne. It is bleach," Cuomo said. "That’s all this is about, reducing the spread, not eliminating the spread."
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New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday night that the state has its first confirmed case of coronavirus, the New York Times reports. Cuomo would only describe the patient as a woman in her late 30s, who contracted the virus while traveling in Iran. She is being self-quarantined inside her Manhattan home.
"The patient has respiratory symptoms, but is not in serious condition and has been in a controlled situation since arriving to New York," Cuomo said in a statement, per ABC News. WABC reports investigators will now determine when she returned to the state, and seek out anyone she was traveling with.
There are two people from New York City still awaiting the results of their tests, which should come within the next two days.
In light of the declaration from Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, that "it's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen" in the U.S., Cuomo tried to also ease the elevating concerns of New Yorkers.
"There is no reason for undue anxiety — the general risk remains low in New York," he added. "We are diligently managing this situation and will continue to provide information as it becomes available."
