A state of emergency has been declared in Monroe County over concerns about COVID-19.
The announcement came Saturday morning from Monroe County Executive Adam Bello on Saturday, March 14 after news of the county’s second confirmed case broke late Friday night. Hours after that announcement, Bello said in a statement that all Monroe County public schools will be closed indefinitely.
The most recent patient is a woman in her 60s in stable condition, Monroe County Public Health Commissioner Michael Mendoza said at a press conference Saturday morning. Mendoza said the woman began experiencing symptoms on March 4, and attended work at Arcadia Middle School in Greece on March 5 and March 6. The symptoms were still mild at the time, Mendoza said.
WXXI reported that all Greece schools are closing in response to this information.
The patient is currently in Rochester’s Unity Hospital. Mendoza said that at the time of the press conference, there was no indication that the infection was travel-related, and that he believed this to be the county’s first case of locally transmitted COVID-19.
Mendoza said that the county is in the process of contact tracing, which he defined as “looking through all of the individuals that this person may have come into contact with to try to understand both her risk, the risk to her immediate friends and family, and obviously the risk to the larger community.”
Bello urged residents to take preventative measures against the coronavirus, like washing hands frequently, remaining home if unwell, and practicing social distancing.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
