STATEMENT FROM MAYOR DE BLASIO ON TWO NEW COVID-19 CASES IN NEW YORK CITY

Statement issued on March 5, 2020 by the Office of the Mayor of New York

“There are two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New York City.  One new patient is a man in his 40s, and one new patient is a woman in her 80s. Neither patient has a connection to travel nor any of the other local individuals diagnosed with COVID-19.  Both are currently hospitalized and in the intensive care unit. City disease detectives are tracing close contacts of both individuals and will ensure they are appropriately isolated and tested immediately.

We are going to see more cases like this as community transmission becomes more common. We want New Yorkers to be prepared and vigilant, not alarmed. We are taking the same decisive steps in every case to shut transmission down: isolate and test each suspected case, trace close contacts, and isolate and test them as well.

To ensure we are able to test as many people as possible, we urgently need the CDC to increase our supply of COVID-19 test kits and expedite the approval of any testing approaches developed by private companies. Our single greatest challenge is the lack of fast federal action to increase testing capacity—without that, we cannot beat this epidemic back.”