New York City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot took to Twitter Friday afternoon to dispute reports that the Big Apple had a confirmed case of coronavirus.
A handful of media outlets, including The Daily News, reported that eight NYPD precincts were warned about “1 confirmed case” of coronavirus at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.
Barbot shared a tweet, which has since been removed, from Quicktake, a Bloomberg news site, repeating the same rumor.
Michael Lanza, spokesman for the New York City Department of Health, also told Forbes that there were no confirmed or possible cases.
“There are no confirmed or suspected cases in NYC,” he said.
On Thursday, the the U.S. State Department issued a "Do Not Travel" advisory for China due to the spreading outbreak.
Thousands of people have been sickened by the virus across the globe and more than 200 people have been killed due to coronavirus. As of Friday, there are six confirmed cases of the virus, which originated in Wuhan, China, in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Friday afternoon, the Atlanta-based CDC announced that a federal quarantine was in place for 195 people who were aboard a U.S. government-charted flight from China to the March Air Reserve Base in Ontario, California, earlier this week. The quarantine is in place for two weeks.
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