Jewish attorney Lawrence Garbuz from the town of New Rochelle, who was New York State’s first confirmed COVID-19 patient, is out of the hospital, Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a press conference on Sunday.
“Patient zero [...] who was very sick for a very long time, has gone home,” Cuomo said with a smile.
The Young Israel of New Rochelle synagogue, which Garbuz attended, was forced to close after his diagnosis and a one-mile containment zone was set up around it.
As Passover approached, Cuomo urged the Jewish community not to hold gatherings to celebrate the holiday.
“It’s hard,” he said. “But on the flip side I say look at what happened in New Rochelle: those gatherings that brought people together were religious gatherings [Purim parties] and brought hundreds of people together, which was beautiful, but made a lot of people ill.”
