UPDATE: The numbers of coronavirus cases in NJ has jumped to 11

Two more hospital patients diagnosed with coronavirus infection Sunday — a 70-year-old Teaneck health care worker and a 32-year-old West New York man — brought the total case count in New Jersey to six, with 27 others awaiting test results.

"From north to south, the coronavirus seems to be spreading," state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said during a Sunday afternoon conference call with reporters. "We expect increasing activity daily, if not hourly."

The growing number of "presumed positive" cases in New Jersey came as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency in that state, which has 105 confirmed cases, 82 of them in Westchester County. Test results from the state public health laboratory are considered presumed positive until confirmed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The state coronavirus task force, named by Gov. Phil Murphy in late January, will discuss criteria at its next meeting to decide whether to declare a statewide public health emergency, Persichilli said. Such a declaration is not necessary to close schools, said Matt Platkin, the governor's chief counsel. "As soon as we determine we need the authority to do things we can’t currently do — as soon as that is the case — the governor will take action," he said.

New Jersey currently doesn't have widespread community transmission of the disease, which would create the need to cancel mass gatherings and close schools, officials said.

Two Englewood residents who have been diagnosed with COVID-19, as the disease is called, are believed to have been exposed to the virus through the cluster of cases in Westchester County, New York, said New Jersey health officials. It originated in an attorney who commuted to Manhattan and attended a synagogue in New Rochelle, New York.

One of the Englewood cases, a 55-year-old man, may have exposed others at the national Conservative Political Action Committee conference, which was attended by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in February. The American Conservative Union, host of the Maryland event, on Saturday notified participants about the man's attendance, noting that he did not attend any sessions with Trump or Pence.

"The risk of the average New Jerseyan contracting coronavirus remains low," said Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, who convened the call in the absence of Murphy. He has resumed his duties as governor after returning Saturday night from a New York hospital where he had undergone kidney surgery.

Currently, the strategy for New Jersey health officials is to contain the spread of coronavirus by interviewing each person diagnosed with COVID-19 and getting in touch with all of the person's contacts, telling them to monitor their symptoms and stay away from other people for 14 days.

Those interviews have not yet been conducted with the two patients most recently diagnosed with the disease, so officials don't know how they were exposed or who their contacts have been. The patients are:

A 70-year-old Teaneck man hospitalized in stable condition in the intensive care unit at St. Joseph's University Medical Center in Paterson. He exhibited symptoms on Feb. 28 and was hospitalized on March 6, Persichilli said, adding that he was presumed to be a physician.

A 32-year-old West New York man hospitalized at Hackensack University Medical Center. No information was provided about his condition.

Teaneck Township Manager Dean Kazinci said in a statement Sunday that township health officials were working with state officials "to determine any circulation within the community while the patient was contagious."

State officials also identified for the first time on Sunday the urgent care center where two New Jersey patients received care when they showed symptoms but had not yet been diagnosed: CityMD Urgent Care on Route 4 in Paramus. Officials said they were unable to provide the dates on which the patients — who are not connected — visited the clinic.

A Cherry Hill man also diagnosed with the disease visited Cooper University Urgent Care on Route 70 in Cherry Hill.

"The urgent care centers are informing and advising their own health care workers" and also visitors to the centers who were there at the same time as the coronavirus patients, Persichilli said, and have been "quite responsive." The Paramus clinic was open for business on Sunday.

A spokesman for Summit CityMD provided different information about contact notification. After a patient tests positive, said Matt Gove, the managers talk to the CDC and Department of Health and those agencies notify patients and employees. He said anyone in the facility who had direct contact is notified by the government.

The facility already is disinfected daily, Gove added.

New Jersey and New York officials also are trying to track down the passengers of an Uber driver who transported passengers between the two states, and subsequently received a diagnosis of COVID-19, Persichilli said. "I don't know how many he transported," she said, providing no other details.

Officials on Sunday revealed more details about the Fort Lee man, a 32-year-old physician, who was the first case diagnosed in New Jersey. He attended a medical conference — Empire Medical Training — at the Westin Hotel in New York from Feb. 28 to March 2, Persichilli said. None of the people who attended that conference are currently symptomatic, New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio said at an afternoon news conference.

Both that patient and the West New York man remain in isolation at Hackensack University Medical Center, the hospital said in a statement.

A New York rabbi who attended services on Feb. 23, and a private bar mitzvah on March 2 at Agudas Yisroel of Passaic Park, has tested positive for the virus, congregants have been informed, said Mordechai Golombeck, president of the Orthodox congregation.

"We disinfected the facility on Friday," he said. Anyone who was in close contact with the New Rochelle rabbi was told to stay home for two weeks and monitor themselves for symptoms. "Nobody has tested positive from our synagogue," Golombeck said. "I haven't heard of anyone who thinks they may have it."

Story continues below photo gallery

The flurry of activity came as the case count in the United States reached 460 in 33 states, including new reports from Connecticut and Washington, D.C., on Sunday, and more states became capable of testing. Twenty-one people have died in the United States, more than half of them residents of a nursing home near Seattle.

The only laboratory in New Jersey capable of conducting the tests is the state public health laboratory in Ewing. Currently, 27 people from nine counties await test results; a third are from Bergen County. None of New Jersey's "presumed positive" test results have been confirmed by the CDC yet, said Chris Neuwirth, an assistant health commissioner.

Coronavirus symptoms appear two days to two weeks after exposure and include a fever, a dry cough, shortness of breath and other respiratory problems. While most people experience mild to moderate illness, about 15% will develop a severe form of the disease and require hospitalization. The death rate among confirmed cases in China has been about 3%.

There is no approved treatment and no vaccine. The best prevention is to avoid exposure to the respiratory droplets that contain the virus. Wash your hands frequently, especially after touching surfaces that many people have touched. Avoid transferring the virus to the mucous membranes of your eyes, nose or mouth by keeping your hands away from your face. Stay away from sick people.

The Mount Olive school district has canceled classes for Monday while the staff convenes to plan for a possible period of teaching students remotely during the coronavirus outbreak spreading in New Jersey. The closing is precautionary, said Mount Olive Superintendent Robert Zywicki, and the closure will be covered with an unused snow day.

Staff Writer William Westhoven contributed to this article.