Confirmed case of coronavirus in Suffolk, as statewide total jumps to 105

There has been one confirmed coronavirus case in Suffolk County, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a briefing this morning.

Cuomo did not say where the Suffolk patient lives or whether the person is hospitalized.

The total number of confirmed cases in New York State has risen to 105, up from the 89 reported by the state yesterday afternoon.

The state is working to contain community spread of the virus, Cuomo said. He is urging New Yorkers to self-isolate if they are feeling ill.

“If you feel sick or have symptoms, stay home,” the governor said.

He urged employers to provide “liberal sick leave” for their workers so that they can stay home — with pay — if sick. Employers should schedule workers in shifts if at all possible and also allow people to work from home where possible.

“We want to reduce as much as possible situations creating density,” he said.

Cuomo encouraged people to avoid crowded situations, including crowded public transit.

This is especially important for people in “vulnerable groups” — the elderly, people with immune deficiencies and people with underlying medical conditions, Cuomo said.

“This is a dangerous disease for them,” Cuomo said, though he stressed that it is not a dangerous disease for others. The governor has repeatedly urged people to keep the illness “in perspective.” The level of fear is not justified by the facts, he said.

The virus spreads through droplets in the air from coughing and sneezing, as well as by touching surfaces that have been touched by someone with the virus, and then touching their own mouths, noses or eyes. For that reason, people are urged to use tissues when sneezing or coughing and to refrain from touching their faces. Don’t shake hands with others. People should also avoid closed, crowded spaces.

Westchester County continues to be the epicenter of the outbreak in New York, where today there are 82 positive cases, the governor said.

A Manhattan attorney who lives in New Rochelle was the first confirmed-positive case in Westchester. He attended a large gathering at a synagogue in New Rochelle at the end of last month. Other people became infected and they, too, attended other large gatherings, in turn infecting more people.

Cuomo criticized the response of the federal Centers for Disease Control in the coronavirus outbreak.

“The CDC wasn’t ready for this and they should have been,” he said today. “It has been slow in allowing states and other commercial laboratories to test,” he said.

The CDC has also refused to allow automated testing, which would exponentially increase the capacity to test people with suspected infection.

The lack of capacity to test means identification of fewer people with the illness. The failure to identify people with the illness inhibits the ability to contain the spread of the illness, Cuomo said.

“The single best thing we can do is testing. The more you test, the more you identify. The more you can isolate people and stop the spread, the more you can contain the outbreak,” he said.

New York got permission to test for the virus in the state lab at Wadsworth last week, but the CDC has not granted the state’s daily requests to allow private labs to test and to allow for automated testing, Cuomo said.

The governor held today’s briefing at Northwell Health’s Center for Advanced Medicine in New Hyde Park, flanked by State Commissioner of Health Howard Zucker and Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling.

“This 150,000-square-foot laboratory is the most sophisticated lab in New York, and one of the most sophisticated in the United States,” he said. “Yet CDC has not authorized the use of this lab. It is just outrageous and ludicrous,” he said.

“CDC, wake up,” Cuomo said into the cameras. “Let the states and private labs test. Let’s expand our testing capacities as quickly as possible.”

Health officials should be using every available lab and automated testing, as it would “increase capacity exponentially,” Cuomo said.

He said allowing the Northwell lab to process tests would increase the state’s capacity to test by at least 1,000 tests per day.

“Hopefully the CDC acts responsibly and quickly,” he said.

Cuomo said the state must prioritize people to test to match its capacity to test.

The state has a standard statewide protocol for testing, he said. According to Zucker the testing protocol calls for testing of people who have traveled to countries affected by the virus, anyone who’s been exposed to them, anyone in a hospital where you can’t find out the cause of their illness and then people whose health care professionals are concerned that they are infected.

“We want the physician to have flexibility to request a test,” Zucker said.