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According to Catholic Health Services, which operates the Rockville Centre hospital, the employee was last at work in late February, at which point he displayed no symptoms. He is currently the only Long Island resident in "mandatory isolation."
It was unclear what the man's position was at Mercy Medical Center. He is currently isolated and being treated at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola while health officials backtrack to determine who he may have come in contact within recent weeks.
"Our health departments have been working around the clock to monitor this thing,” Nassau County Executive Laura Curran said after the man tested positive at the Wadsworth Center in Albany. “When we got the positive result, we took the next step. The Department of Health launched a ‘contact investigation’ where a patient is interviewed.
“An analysis was then done, and investigators go out and look at the man’s routines, possible contacts and if anyone is deemed at risk (of coronavirus) they will be contacted by the Department of Health.”
There have been 11 new confirmed cases of coronavirus in New York State bringing the total to 33 statewide, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced. Each of the cases, including one in Nassau County, is tied to the original Westchester lawyer who was the second person to test positive for the virus earlier this week.
Cuomo said that there are now 4,000 New Yorkers under “precautionary quarantine,” including 70 in Nassau County and 15 in Suffolk County. Those residents are being monitored. Of those quarantined, one in Nassau County is under “mandatory quarantine.”
Health officials said that 83 people are being monitored for possible coronavirus exposure on Long Island, with six people testing negative. Approximately 26 cases are being monitored in Suffolk and 62 are under surveillance in Nassau.
Cuomo said that the man hospitalized in Nassau County had underlying medical conditions that made him more vulnerable to coronavirus. He’s currently being treated and his condition has improved, the governor noted.
As of March 6, there have been 100,776 confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, leading to 3,412 deaths. There have been 237 positive tests in the United States.
“The way we’re looking at it now, is that it’s community spread,” New York State Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said. “Whether it deals with a school, or an office, or family, but this is why we have to go and backtrack to see who they’ve had contact with.”
Cuomo reiterated that 80 percent of coronavirus cases will self resolve, and less than 20 percent will require hospitalization.
“I’m not urging calm. I’m urging reality,” the governor said. “I’m urging a factual response as opposed to an emotional response. I’m urging that people understand the information and not the hype. We have more people in this country dying from the flu than we have dying from coronavirus.”
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