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Coronavirus in N.Y.: Manhattan Woman Is First Confirmed Case in State

A woman in her 30s who had traveled in Iran contracted the virus and is now isolated at home.

In New York City, some 1,200 hospital beds could be made available to coronavirus patients without interfering with anyone else’s medical care, Mayor Bill de Blasio has said.Credit...Bryan R. Smith for The New York Times

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Sunday confirmed New York State’s first case of the coronavirus, saying that a woman contracted the virus while traveling in Iran and is now in New York City isolated in her home.

“The patient has respiratory symptoms, but is not in serious condition and has been in a controlled situation since arriving to New York,” Governor Cuomo said in a statement.

The 39-year-old-woman is in Manhattan, according to state officials. She returned from Iran last week, and was tested after going to a hospital in the city; she has since been staying at home, officials said.

Early on Monday, the governor said the woman was a “unique case.” Appearing on CBS This Morning, he said she was a health care worker so “she knew to take precautions and stay in a controlled situation.” He added that she had not ridden public transportation since returning to New York.

Later, on CNN, he said he anticipated that “there will be community spread” but that “there’s no reason for concern.”

The sample submitted for testing was analyzed on Sunday in the Wadsworth Lab in Albany, N.Y. Those results will now be reviewed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

New York City’s Health Commissioner, Oxiris Barbot, said the agency had already identified “close contacts of the patient” who may have been exposed to the virus, officially known as Covid-19.

“Our disease detectives have already identified close contacts of the patient, who may have been exposed, and will take appropriate measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19,” Dr. Barbot said. “Despite this development, New Yorkers remain at low risk for contracting Covid-19.”

Still the news that the coronavirus had landed in Manhattan was sure to raise the level of anxiety across this dense city, where people spend their days in close quarters. For weeks, the city has been bracing for the virus’s arrival, as it spread across much of the world.

By this weekend, many stores in the city had run out of sanitary supplies such as hand sanitizer, masks and antibacterial wipes.

“We are trying to get some products from Amazon but so far they are back ordered as well, or prices are ridiculously expensive,” Aleksandr Abdurakhmanov, the supervising pharmacist and owner of Chelsea Royal Care Pharmacy in Manhattan, said on Sunday afternoon.

More than 80 people in the United States have been confirmed through laboratory testing to have the new coronavirus. Many had been passengers on a cruise ship ravaged by the virus or had been infected in China and then returned to the United States.

But there have also been several confirmed cases of person-to-person spread in the United States. And researchers say that in Washington State the virus may have been spreading for weeks, largely undetected, and that hundreds of people may have possibly been infected. Two people in Washington have died after falling ill with the new coronavirus.

The new virus is believed to have originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year before spreading to more than 50 other countries. More than 86,000 people have been infected, and more than 2,800 have died. New hubs of transmission have emerged in Italy, South Korea and Iran.

Iran, the epicenter of the outbreak in the Middle East, has officially confirmed 987 cases, state news media reported.

New York officials have said for weeks that it was inevitable that the virus would show up in the city.

In a statement issued late on Sunday, Mr. de Blasio said the city’s health officials had “been in a state of high alert for weeks, and are fully prepared to respond.”

Little is known about the woman other than the fact she was one of two people who the city’s Health Department said on Sunday was being tested for the virus.

Earlier on Sunday The New York Post reported that Mayor de Blasio had described the two people who were being tested as a couple who had recently been to Iran. The other person’s results have not yet been announced.

Over the last month, there have been obstacles to widespread testing that may have limited the ability of the authorities to detect cases. Until this weekend, New York State health authorities could not test patients locally and had to send samples to the C.D.C. Because of the C.D.C.’s narrow parameters on who was eligible for testing, the number of people tested was quite limited.

Over the previous month, only nine people in New York City had samples sent to the C.D.C. for testing — all were found not to have the virus. But testing procedures changed over the weekend, when the Wadsworth Lab in Albany began administering coronavirus tests after receiving permission from the federal government.

In addition to faster turnaround, New York’s health authorities now have more control over who is tested, which could lead to far wider testing than has occurred so far.

“We’re closely watching as the situation evolves, and as we brace for the possibility for community transmission here in New York City,” a spokesman for New York City’s Health Department, Patrick Gallahue, said. “And if a change in criteria is needed, we’ll seek it.”

The authorities in New York have said they are prepared for the arrival of the virus. In New York City, some 1,200 hospital beds could be made available to coronavirus patients without interfering with anyone else’s medical care, Mayor de Blasio has said.

Coronaviruses have been behind other dangerous outbreaks in recent decades: SARS in 2002-03 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, which was first reported in 2012.

New York had a close call with SARS. A doctor in Singapore who had been infected with SARS while treating patients flew to New York City in 2003 for a conference. He grew increasingly ill while in New York, eventually cutting short his trip and boarding a flight for home.

The new coronavirus appears to be less lethal than SARS or MERS, but it is spreading more quickly.

The symptoms of the new coronavirus can include fever, cough and shortness of breath, according to the C.D.C. While the illness is mild in some patients, others have pneumonia and respiratory failure.

Katie Van Syckle and Luis Ferré-Sadurní contributed reporting.

Joseph Goldstein covers health care in New York. He has been a reporter at The Times since 2011. More about Joseph Goldstein

Jesse McKinley is the Albany bureau chief. He was previously the San Francisco bureau chief, and a theater columnist and Broadway reporter for the Culture Desk. More about Jesse McKinley

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 24 of the New York edition with the headline: Woman in Manhattan Is Confirmed as New York State’s First Case in Outbreak. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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