ROCHESTER, NY — The first person to die from coronavirus infection in upstate New York was an employee at Rochester General Hospital, though officials insisted Wednesday his death had no connection to the Portland Avenue institution.

The 54-year-old man who died Tuesday of COVID-19 was an environmental-services employee of the hospital, Rochester General president Dr. Kevin Casey said Wednesday.

News of the man's death was followed by announcements from the county of five new cases of COVID-19 in the county, including an RTS Access paratransit driver. County health officials said the driver posed no risk to passengers because he last had contact with a rider 15 days ago.

Confirmed cases totaled 19.

At a news conference Wednesday morning, the county public health commissioner, Dr. Michael Mendoza, said it's most likely the Rochester General employee acquired the infection not at work but from someone elsewhere.

"I believe it's community transmission," Mendoza said.

Monroe County announced the first area death Tuesday afternoon, but disclosed no details about the deceased person. WHEC-TV first reported Tuesday night that the man was Alvin Simmons, who they said had worked in housekeeping at the hospital for only a few weeks before falling ill on March 10.

In a statement Wednesday morning, hospital operator Rochester Regional Health said the man had "multiple, serious underlying conditions, including hypertension, liver disease, and tobacco use." High blood pressure was shown in a Chinese coronavirus study to be a significant risk factor for people with COVID-19.

Roughly 30 Rochester General employees have been told to quarantine at home because of possible exposure to the virus, Casey said.

He did not explain how they might have been exposed except for two emergency-room specialists who hurriedly put a breathing tube into Simmons when he arrived at the hospital Friday in acute respiratory distress. The pair were immediately sent off to quarantine, he said.

Relatives of Simmons told WHEC-TV on Tuesday that he fell ill with a bad cough on Tuesday, March 10, and was diagnosed with pneumonia at Rochester General the next day. He was given a coronavirus test and sent home.

They said Simmons was rushed back to the hospital on Friday, March 13.

Casey offered a different timeline, saying the employee had worked until Thursday, first appeared at the emergency room Friday and was sent home as "clinically stable." The hospital president said the man was brought back in acute distress 18 hours later and was sent to the intensive care unit.

By Saturday, Simmons' family told WHEC, he had been pronounced brain dead. His test came back positive for coronavirus on Saturday as well.

He died Tuesday.

Casey said the man was the first patient at Rochester General who had tested positive for the coronavirus. That made it, in his estimation, unlikely the deceased employee had acquired the virus there. In addition, the hospital checked his work schedule and contacts and did not find cases where he interacted with staff or patients who were suspected of carrying the virus and thus able to pass it to man.

"This was felt to be a community-acquired case of coronavirus," Casey said.

Mendoza, the county public health commissioner, had different reasoning, saying Wednesday he did not believe the man had been at work at the hospital during the time he most likely would have picked up the virus from another person.

The county was asked to clarify that timeline but did not.

Symptoms can appear from 2 to 12 days after exposure with a median time of 5 days, according to one recently published study based on cases in China, where the virus was first observed.

County officials did not say anything about the discovery of the infectious pathogen in an employee of the hospital between Saturday, when a lab test confirmed the infection, and Tuesday, when he died.

By contrast, county health officials did disclose on Saturday that the region's second confirmed COVID-19 case was an employee of Greece Arcadia Middle School, an announcement that helped drive a decision to shut down the school district. The health department announced on Sunday that five more Greece school workers had tested positive for the virus.

Health officials have not explained if some or all of those cases in Greece school employees are related.

Contact watchdog reporter Steve Orr at sorr@democratandchronicle.com or at (585) 258-2386. Follow him on Twitter at @SOrr1.