BUFFALO (WBEN) - "In Erie County, so far, there have been no confirmed novel coronavirus cases in Erie County, and to our knowledge, there have been no confirmed cases in New York State," said Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein at a Wednesday press conference.
As of the time of the conference, there have been five positive cases identified in the United States, but 92 tests are pending at the CDC. Thirty-six states have people under investigation, and 19 countries, with the vast majority in china, have confirmed cases of the virus. In New York State, 10 people have been tested for the virus, but seven tests came back negative and the other three are still pending.
Globally, roughly 6,000 confirmed cases have been reported, resulting in 132 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
"To put this in perspective, there have been 10 people under investigation in New York State, and remember there ar 19 million people in New York State, so that's not a lot of people."
Burstein then described some of the symtoms now known to be related to the virus, as well as its incubation period.
"The CDC believes that the time of the incubation period can be anywhere between two to 14 days after exposure," she said. "Fever and signs of lower respiratory infection, so that would include cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing - this novel strain of coronavirus has the potential to cause some severe disease."
Although there aren't any known cases particularly close to Western New York at the moment, Burstein discussed some of the procedures they have in place in a case were to appear.
"We are working with healthcare providers and healthcare facilities every day - receiving reports, doing some investigations and sending specimens to the CDC in New York State when they meet the criteria - so we are working on this right now, and it's hard to say how long this will persist," said Burstein. "Responding to this novel coronavirus virus globally is something that we have prepared for and have done in the past just like any other infectious disease outbreak.
"We (would) isolate all cases, all symptomatic people who test positive for coronavirus...we will interview them and get information about their close contacts in the past 14 days and then go out and find those contacts to investigate there and see if they're ill and warrant testing with guidance from the New York State Health Department and CDC."