A day after New York City’s health authorities said that a woman was hospitalized with the city’s first suspected case of the new coronavirus, the authorities on Sunday announced that two more patients also might have the virus.

Samples from all three patients must first be tested at a laboratory in Atlanta that is run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine whether any of the patients do in fact have the new coronavirus.

The turnaround time for receiving the results is usually at least 36 hours, but often longer. Local health departments are not yet able to test for the new illness themselves.

But based on a number of factors — the type of symptoms; the patients’ recent travel in China; and the exclusion of influenza and some other common illnesses through testing — the New York City health authorities are taking quite seriously the possibility that these patients may have the virus.