Coronavirus in New York: Family of Westchester Man and Neighbor Confirmed

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the man’s wife; his son, 20; his daughter, 14; and a neighbor in Westchester County, who drove the man to the hospital, were all confirmed cases.

The new confirmed cases, which brings the number in New York state to six, came as state and local health officials were scrambling to identify the scope of the illness’ spread.

The discovery that the Westchester father, a man of about 50 who works at a law firm in Manhattan, had the illness, set off a search by health officials across the region to determine whether he had infected others, and who might have infected him.

All four people who were confirmed Wednesday to have the virus had been in close contact with the Westchester man in closed environments.

Officials had little clue as to how the man, who had not been to any areas with widespread transmission of the virus, became infected. He became ill on Feb. 22 and was admitted to NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, New York, five days later.

So far, public health workers have told some nurses and doctors at the hospital that they would need to be quarantined.

As health officials worked to trace the possible spread of the illness, they also ordered a synagogue that the man and his family attended to halt all services and told those who had attended a recent bat mitzvah to stay at home.

Disease detectives were also monitoring seven people at the man’s law firm on East 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan to see if they developed symptoms.

The Westchester father, who had an underlying respiratory illness, was hospitalized at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan in serious condition while his family was quarantined in their home in New Rochelle. He is the only one of the six patients to be hospitalized so far.

The Westchester daughter is a student at the SAR Academy and High School in the Bronx, which had been voluntarily shut down by administrators on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The son is a student at Yeshiva University in Manhattan who had not been on campus since Feb. 27, officials said. Classes at the university’s campus in Washington Heights were canceled as a “precautionary step.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .