A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms other studies that the first cases of coronavirus studied in New York came from Europe and other places in the United States.
Airport controls and bans on foreigners from China implemented on February 2 and restrictions on travelers from Europe implemented on March 13 have done nothing to stop or slow the spread of SARS-CoV- 2, the virus that causes COVID-19 because it was already in New York, according to the report released Thursday.

Using data from patients with flu-like symptoms in six New York City emergency departments (two in Manhattan, two in Queens, one in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx) from March 1 to 20 , the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found that out of 544 people, 36 were HIV positive for SARS-CoV-2 and the samples looked like those circulating in Europe.

Five of the six emergency departments were selected because of their use by patients residing in postal codes with a high proportion of Chinese speakers, according to the report. However, none of the samples collected were directly linked to sequences from Wuhan, China, where the outbreak originated.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Thursday: “When [President Trump] says “open”, it means open and full … Science should not stand in the way of that. ”

The report also found that during the weeks of March 8 and March 15, there was an increase in confirmed cases of COVID-19 among New Yorkers under the age of 18. The DOHMH estimated that there was an increase in the prevalence and undetected cases of COVID-19 in young people, which raises the question of the role played by children in community transmission at the start of the pandemic and the effectiveness of school closure as a mitigation strategy.