COVID Community Case 30sM Fort Lee NJ - Link To New Rochelle

[niman]

First confirmed New Jersey case (Fort Lee) appears to be linked to New Rochelle cluster.

[niman]

FORT LEE, New Jersey (WABC) -- New Jersey is waiting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to confirm its first positive case of coronavirus, Governor Murphy reported.

Health officials report that the man in his 30s is hospitalized at Hackensack University Medical Center in Bergen County, and has been hospitalized since March 3rd.

 

RELATED: 5 more COVID-19 patients test positive; 11 cases in New York

"My Administration is working aggressively to keep residents safe and contain the spread of COVID-19 in New Jersey," said Governor Murphy on Wednesday. "We take this situation very seriously and have been preparing for this for weeks. I urge residents to remain calm and use resources from the New Jersey Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control to prepare and prevent the spread of infection. Safeguarding the public's health is one of my highest priorities and my Administration is prepared to respond swiftly to any additional positive cases of COVID-19 here in New Jersey."

The presumptive positive result came from a sample tested bt the New Jersey Department of Health at the New Jersey Public Health Environmental Laboriatories.

The sample will then be submitted to the CDC in Atlanta for confirmatory testing.

State and local public health authorites are treating this case as if it were a confirmed case out of precaution. Officials say the hospital is working closely with the Department of Health to follow infectious disease protocols.

 

The New Jersey Department of Health is in the process of tracing close contacts with the patient, which include a connection to the 50-year-old New Rochelle man.

Since then, that man's wife and two children, along with their neighbors have all tested postive in New York state.

"You see how quickly you touch hundreds of people. It's just in life," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said. "It's impossible to really contain, but you are putting more people on notice, etc, but its just a function of circumstance. This could have happened anywhere. It happened in New Rochelle, but it could have happened anywhere. and it will."

New Jersey's health commissioner says the public's risk of catching COVID-19 is still very low, but everyone needs to take steps to protect themselves.

 

https://abc7ny.com/5987040/

Edited March 5, 2020 by niman