NEW YORK - New York City has had its first person test positive for the novel coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot confirmed Sunday evening.
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson has confirmed that the positive test came from a woman in Manhattan.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said earlier in the evening that the state had reported its first positive test for the coronavirus. Cuomo said the person who tested positive is a woman in her late 30s who contracted the virus while traveling abroad in Iran. The woman has respiratory symptoms but is not in serious condition and is currently isolated in her home, according to Cuomo.
The test was confirmed in Wadsworth Lab in Albany, according to Cuomo.
"There is no cause for surprise - this was expected," Cuomo said in a 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."
The city's Health Department had said earlier Sunday that two people were being tested in NYC for the coronavirus. According to the city Health Department, one other coronavirus test is still pending.
The city and state were granted permission to begin testing its own coronavirus cases on Saturday, and the city said that would cause test results to come in faster.
Both Cuomo and Barbot say the city and state's risk for coronavirus remains low.
"There is no need for undue anxiety," the governor said.
"As we confront this emerging outbreak, we need to separate facts from fear, and guard against stigma and panic," Barbot said.
The news of a first positive test in New York City comes as the Associated Press is reporting that a second person in the United States has died from the coronavirus, in the state of Washington.