A man in New Jersey is hospitalized with the state's first "presumptive positive case of novel coronavirus," officials said Wednesday night.
The man, who's in his 30s, has been hospitalized in Bergen County since Tuesday. The test result came from a sample tested by the New Jersey Department of Health. It now heads to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmatory testing. Governor Phil Murphy urged residents to stay calm.
"My Administration is working aggressively to keep residents safe and contain the spread of COVID-19 in New Jersey," Murphy said. "We take this situation very seriously and have been preparing for this for weeks."
State officials have not released any additional information about the man.
New Jersey currently has over 700 isolation rooms available in local hospitals.
Bergen County canceled overseas trips for four high schools, equipped police with protective gear and stopped accepting immigrant detainees at the county jail.
County officials have urged the public to use common sense to avoid the virus.
Earlier Wednesday, Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli asked people who attended religious events at the Temple Young Israel in New Rochelle, NY on Feb. 22 and 23 to self-quarantine until March 8. There are 11 confirmed cases in New York, most of them out of New Rochelle.
Click here for more information on novel coronavirus from the NJ Health Department.
This article was written by Aliza Chasan for WPIX.
