Coronavirus In Westchester, NYC: Hundreds To Be Quarantined
UPDATE — Members of two families in New Rochelle have tested positive for the new coronavirus and have gone into quarantine, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a late afternoon press conference. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased to 11 in New York. The Westchester Torah Academy joined the list of closed schools.
WHITE PLAINS, NY — About 500 people are expected to go into either mandatory or self-quarantine in Westchester County and New York City after a family and neighbor in New Rochelle tested positive for the new coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a news conference Wednesday after noon in White Plains.
“They will be contacted; between county, state and private organizations, they’ll be given information on what that means,” he said.
The affected people include congregants and attendees at recent events at Young Israel of New Rochelle synagogue; eight staffers at New York Presbyterian-Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville; students and staff at the SAR Academy in Riverdale; some people at Yeshiva University; and members of the hospitalized man’s midtown Manhattan law firm.
They’re all on the list of people who may have come in contact with a New Rochelle family with coronavirus: the 50-year-old father, who is hospitalized, his wife, a 14-year-old daughter and a 20-year-old son; and the neighbor who drove the father to Lawrence Hospital.
The neighbor’s children are also being tested, Cuomo said.
The 50-year-old New Rochelle man who was confirmed to have the virus is stable and improving at a New York City hospital, Cuomo said. County and state health department officials are investigating more possible points of contact now, Cuomo said.
There are two types of quarantine, Cuomo said: mandatory isolation for those who have tested positive, and self-quarantine for those who are at risk because of potential contact with contagious people. Anyone who has tested positive must isolate themselves from others even in their home.
“If you can’t, then we will find you a place you can be quarantined,” Cuomo said. “That is a mandatory quarantine. We check on those people to make sure they are doing it. That’s being policed by the local health departments with regulation from the state.”
The county has set up a hotline specifically for people who are being quarantined because of the New Rochelle case, Westchester County Executive George Latimer said. Other Westchester residents should call 211 if they have questions about the virus and exposure.
Latimer said the immediate focus is on tracking the movements of the people who tested positive — “detective work we have to do at the county level.”
The self-quarantine affects the synagogue, which will be closed through March 8. SAR Academy will close until after Purim, which ends the evening of March 10, and the elementary grades will close through Friday.
The decisions try “to minimize the imposition on people while protecting public health,” Cuomo said.
Yeshiva University, where the 20-year-old is a student, will close at least until Friday, he said.
“Some additional investigation is needed before making a decision,” he said.
Cuomo reiterated his argument that people don’t need to panic.
“We have an epidemic caused by coronavirus, but we have a pandemic caused by fear,” Cuomo said.
Most will have mild cases. The state is most concerned about senior citizens, people with compromised immune systems, nursing home settings and senior care settings.
What’s happened so far in New York bears that out, he said. The first diagnosed case of the new coronavirus was a New York City health care worker who been to Iran.
“The 34-year-old health care worker is home and getting better,” Cuomo said. “The 50-year-old attorney had an underlying respiratory illness. He is in the category of people we worry about.”
Tests of people in Suffolk County, Oneida County and Buffalo had come back negative, he said.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said current symptoms reported for people with the new coronavirus, officially called COVID-19, include mild to severe respiratory illness with fever, cough and difficulty breathing. The virus is spreading from person to person, and someone sickened with the virus can spread the illness to others, medical officials said.
There is currently no vaccine to prevent the new coronavirus. The best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to the virus, though the CDC recommends preventive actions to help avoid spreading respiratory diseases, such as:
Coronavirus in New York
Editor’s Note: Gov. Andrew Cuomo changed his noontime estimate of the number of people in Westchester going into voluntary or mandated quarantine at a 4 p.m. news conference. He said that 1,000 people were self-quarantining in New York and that about 500 would be doing so in connection with the Westchester case.