The head of the Port Authority — who has been visiting local airports — has the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday, as the state’s infection toll rose by 37, to 142 patients.
Cuomo said he himself “could have been in contact” with infected PA executive director Rick Cotton but hasn’t been tested because he’s an “improbable positive,” meaning he isn’t likely to have the virus.
The governor didn’t say how Cotton may have contracted the potentially deadly bug but noted that the executive director “has been at the airports, obviously, when many people were coming back with the virus.”
Cuomo specifically mentioned JFK Airport in Queens.
Cotton “will be working from home, and now the senior team that works with Rick will also be tested so several of them may be on quarantine and they’ll be working from home,” Cuomo said.
The PA chief and his “senior leadership team” are under a 14-day quarantine, officials later added.
Cuomo also revealed that the state total of confirmed coronavirus cases is now at 142, or 37 more than Sunday.
They include at least six more in New York City and an additional 16 in Westchester County, which is currently the hardest-hit area in the state.
“These numbers are going to continue to go in one direction — and that is up,” Cuomo warned.
Eight people in the state are currently hospitalized with the virus, the governor said.
Coronavirus map: Confirmed cases in the US
