The first coronavirus case linked to Brooklyn has been confirmed, according to City Hall.
An 80-year-old Brooklyn woman — who has no known connection to other confirmed cases of the potentially deadly illness within the city — tested positive for the virus, marking the 13th confirmed case in New York State.
“We are going to see more cases like this as community transmission becomes more common,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. “We want New Yorkers to be prepared and vigilant, not alarmed.”
City Hall would not say where the elderly woman lives in Brooklyn, or where she is being hospitalized, but said that she is currently in an intensive care unit.
The first confirmed case in New York City was a 39-year-old health care worker from Manhattan who had recently traveled to Iran. She is currently quarantined in her home.
The second case in the area was detected in a 50-year-old lawyer from the northern suburbs who works in Manhattan, who then spread the virus to nine people who had come in contact with him.
The two new cases, which include the 80-year-old Brooklyn woman and a 40-year-old Manhattan man are unique in that the patients are not directly linked to any of the previously existing cases and neither patients have traveled recently, according to officials.
With the number of cases increasing, de Blasio called on the feds to increase the city’s supply or coronavirus test kits, and accelerate the approval of tests developed by private pharmaceutical companies.
“Our single greatest challenge is the lack of fast federal action to increase testing capacity—without that, we cannot beat this epidemic back,” the mayor said.
