New York City Has Its First Case of Coronavirus

New York governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed on Monday that the coronavirus has reached New York City.

In an interview with CBS’ Gayle King, Cuomo said the coronavirus patient is a health care worker who contracted the disease while traveling in Iran. Cuomo said New Yorkers “should not be surprised” that the pandemic would eventually reach Manhattan, but called it fortunate that the patient had the expertise to get herself checked out and then self-isolated herself inside her apartment.

“She knew to take precautions and stay in a controlled situation and then go for testing. And we got the testing results back,” Cuomo said. “I don’t think there’s anything extraordinary in this case, of anything, because she was a health care worker. She knew to take precautions herself, which was fortunate.”

Cuomo went on to say the state government’s current focus is on detecting and isolating the coronavirus while mobilizing the health care system against it.

“Beyond that, it’s a communication issue to people, you know,” Cuomo said. “We want to have a healthy diligence about this issue, but we don’t want an unnecessary anxiety and we don’t want people overreacting. So, that’s what this is really about to me.”

Watch above, via CBS.