(Bloomberg) -- A New York City woman in her late 30s is the first person in the state to test positive for the new coronavirus.
“The patient has respiratory symptoms, but is not in serious condition and has been in a controlled situation since arriving to New York,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement Sunday.
The woman contracted the virus while traveling in Iran, and is currently isolated in her Manhattan apartment, according to a state official with knowledge of the case. It wasn't clear when she returned from Iran.
“Disease detectives have already identified close contacts of the patient, who may have been exposed,” said Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot. She said the department would “take appropriate measures” to prevent the spread of the virus, adding that New Yorkers “remain at low risk” for contracting the virus.
The coronavirus' spread escalated over the weekend, with the global death toll exceeding 3,000, including the first death in the U.S. Australia and Thailand also reported their first fatalities, while Iran has confirmed 43 deaths in total, the highest number outside of China.
The U.S. expanded its travel restrictions to Iran, and will deny entry to any foreign citizen who has visited Iran in the last 14 days. The U.S. and Japan also issued “do-not-travel” warnings for affected regions of Italy and South Korea.
New York has tested 32 people for the virus and all but one have come back negative, said Dani Lever, a spokeswoman for Cuomo.
The governor's office and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio will be holding a news conference Monday morning to discuss the case and ongoing efforts against the virus.
“There is no cause for surprise -- this was expected,” Cuomo said in the statement. “As I said from the beginning, it was a matter of when, not if there would be a positive case of novel coronavirus in New York.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Virginia Van Natta in San Francisco at vvannatta@bloomberg.net;Henry Goldman in New York at hgoldman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Linus Chua at lchua@bloomberg.net
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