The lawyer at the center of the coronavirus cluster of cases in New Rochelle, New York, has been released home after spending a month in a hospital.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Sunday that Lawrence Garbuz, 50, who has been dubbed ‘patient zero’ after infecting multiple family members and neighbors, has been discharged from the New York Presbyterian Lawrenence Hospital in Bronxville.
‘The “patient zero” – what we call patient zero in Westchester, New Rochelle – who was very sick for a very long time, he has actually gone home,’ Cuomo said during his daily press conference on Sunday. ‘He’s out of the hospital.’
Lawrence Garbuz, the lawyer at the center of the coronavirus cluster of cases in New Rochelle, New York, has been released home from the hospital (pictured right with wife Adina)
Healthcare workers arrive to a new center set up to test for the COVID-19 virus in New Rochelle, where Garbuz had unwittingly passed on the virus to family and friends in March
Cuomo used Garbuz’s case an an example of a growing trend of COVID-19 patients recovering and going home.
‘Now you’re seeing the discharge number trend way up,’ he said.
The number of patients being discharged at the state’s hospitals after they have been treated for coronavirus has increased daily to a high of 845 on Saturday, Cuomo said.
As of Monday afternoon, more than 4,200 people have been discharged.
There were 66,497 confirmed cases of the virus in New York and 1,218 deaths.
So far, Garbuz has not publicly commented on his condition.
Garbuz’s case led Governor Andrew Cuomo to set up a one-mile containment zone in New Rochelle where he lived and bring in the National Guard to help (pictured on March 23)
In mid-March, his wife, Adina Lewis Garbuz, posted on Facebook that her husband was ‘awake and alert and seems to be on the road to full recovery,’
The Manhattan attorney was among the first to be diagnosed with coronavirus in New York and passed it on to dozens, after he commuted between the city and his home in Westchester County.
The outbreak prompted Cuomo to set up a one-mile containment zone in the community where he lived and bring in the National Guard to assist with cleaning public spaces and to deliver food to homes where people are self-quarantined.
Garbuz, who had not traveled to any country linked with the virus but had recently returned from Miami, first fell ill on February 28.
His neighbor in New Rochelle drove him to the New York Presbyterian Lawrenence Hospital in Bronxville, New York after he started having trouble breathing.
Doctors initially assumed he had pneumonia and he was put in a regular room before being moved to intensive care as he condition deteriorated.
There were 66,497 confirmed cases of the virus in New York and 1,218 deaths.
Nationwide, there were 151,491 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,787 deaths
It took four days for him to be diagnosed with coronavirus on March 2, when he became the first case of community spread of the virus in New York.
Before his diagnosis was confirmed, he had come into contact with dozens of doctors and other patients.
Health officials immediately started to retrace his steps and started testing those he had come into contact with.
In addition to hospital staff, it emerged he had come into contact with members of his Temple Young Israel of New Rochelle synagogue, employees and his law firm and friends.
His immediate family, including his wife, 20-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter all tested positive.
The neighbor who drove him to the hospital also contracted the disease.
It then emerged his friend’s family of five, including three children, tested positive.
Medical staff at the hospital, members of his law firm and attendees at the Temple Young Israel of New Rochelle synagogue, of which Garbuz is a member, also became confirmed as cases.