Rabbi of synagogue at the center of a New York coronavirus outbreak tests positive for the disease

The rabbi of a synagogue at the center of a New York coronavirus outbreak has tested positive for the contagion and students he teaches at a Manhattan university have been told to self-isolate. 

Rabbi Reuven Fink, of the Young Israel of New Rochelle synagogue, fell ill after coming into contact with an infected congregant, Yevisha University confirmed today.

Fink teaches two classes at the Washington Heights campus of the college and Yevisha has recommended all of his students ‘as a precautionary measure to self-quarantine until further notice.’ 

Dr Ari Berman, president of the university, said: ‘Our thoughts and prayers are with Rabbi Fink for a full and speedy recovery.’

At least one student at the school has already contracted the virus, the 20-year-old son of New Rochelle resident and Young Israel member Lawrence Garbuz. The 50-year-old Manhattan lawyer’s wife, second child and a neighbor have also caught the disease. 

In an announcement on Wednesday, Yeshiva said: ‘We have unfortunately received news this morning that our student has tested positive for COVID-19. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family as well as to all those affected.  

The Young Israel of New Rochelle synagogue in the affluent New York suburb which is at the center of the Big Apple’s growing outbreak of the deadly COVID-19 disease

‘We are taking every precaution by canceling all classes on Wilf Campus in Washington Heights for Wednesday March 4, 2020.

‘This includes all in-person graduate courses on that campus as well as at the boys’ high school.’ 

Meanwhile a hotel in a Baltimore suburb yesterday canceled the reservation of the Yeshiva University men’s basketball team over fears of the virus. 

Later Thursday, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said the games on campus involving Yeshiva and other teams in the NCAA Division III basketball tournament would be played without fans in the stands because of three confirmed cases of coronavirus in Maryland.

Yeshiva coach Elliot Steinmetz said the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Pikesville canceled the reservation, forcing the team to book rooms at a different hotel.

Yevisha University’s Washington Heights campus in Manhattan. The rabbi’s students have been advised to self-isolate

‘I made it very clear to the hotel that it’s discrimination,’ Steinmetz said. ‘I basically said to them: `Do you have a checkbox on your website that says that you’ve been in an area with suspected coronavirus?’ And they said no. So I said: ‘Is it just for the guests of Yeshiva University?’ And they said yes. I told them that that’s called discrimination.’

Hilton spokeswoman Laura Ford said the hotel in Pikesville is an independently owned and operated property. Hotel management did not immediately return a call seeking comment. 

The 50-year-old lawyer remains in intensive care at the New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. Health officials said he has severe pneumonia that put him in more danger than others from the disease. 

His family, including his wife, son and daughter, remain quarantined in their home in New Rochelle. A neighbor, who initially drove the attorney to the hospital when he started suffering symptoms last Friday night, is also under self-quarantine at home. 

One thousand people who may have come into contact with the attorney, who commuted every day to midtown Manhattan, have been ordered to self-quarantine.

The death toll from the respiratory illness rose to 12 in the US yesterday, with the latest fatality recorded in King County, Washington, where six people have died in an outbreak at a nursing facility in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland.  

At least 57 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed nationwide on Thursday as the virus struck for the first time in Colorado, Maryland, Tennessee and Texas, as well as the city of San Francisco. The total number infected stands at 233.