Hours after New Jersey’s first confirmed case of the coronavirus was confirmed as a Fort Lee resident, the borough’s mayor said the patient is a healthcare worker from New York City who had an apartment in town.

In Borough Hall Thursday afternoon, Mayor Mark Sokolich said the patient, a 32-year-old man whose name has not been made public, lives in New York with his family, but maintained an apartment in Fort Lee.

"While in Fort Lee this individual had no known contact with any other individuals,” Sokolich said.

The man has no school-aged children, said Sokolich, and had not visited any level-3 countries - which have widespread or ongoing community spread of the virus. The patient had not used public transportation and had driven his own car to town, Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco said at the same event.

The mayor’s comments add more details to the state’s first confirmed case of the virus, which originated in Wuhan, China and has infected more than 93,000 worldwide. The virus has already claimed the lives of 3,100 across the globe. It has infected 99 people in the U.S. and killed 10, according to the CDC, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The man first felt ill on Sunday, officials said.

The next day, Monday, the man drove to New Jersey and still felt sick before seeking treatment Monday night. The man went alone to the apartment he maintains in Fort Lee, and lives on the first floor, Sokolich said. The man’s apartment building does not have an elevator, he said.

"During the course of this entire day, your mind wanders,” Sokolich said. “We were preparing for worst case scenarios. We were preparing for high-rises. We were preparing for schools. Fortunately the circumstances confirmed we’re not required to deal with any of that.”

Sokolich confirmed that in the past 14 days, the man was only in town for that one day.

“That one isolated evening was his appearance here in Fort Lee,” he said.

The Fort Lee press event occurred minutes after Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver, who is the state’s acting governor as Gov. Phil Murphy recovers from surgery, announced the state’s second presumptive case of coronavirus. That patient is from Englewood.

While he said the chance of contracting the coronavirus was very low, Tedesco said that precautions are being taken in Bergen County. Like many school districts across the state, Bergen county schools were canceling all overseas travel, he said.

Additionally, Tedesco’s office put out a statement warning county residents of stores that are price gouging as the frenzy to purchase cleaning and disinfectant products such as hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes increases.

Sokolich warned the community that acts of bias in town would not be tolerated and that any such instances should be reported immediately. But otherwise, Fort Lee was business as usual, he said

“Fort Lee is open for business,” Sokolich said. "We’re continuing to conduct our lives.”

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich addresses the media March 5, 2020.Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for

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Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rodrigotorrejon.

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