Rick Cotton, the government director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the region’s significant airports, bridges, tunnels and bus terminals, has analyzed positive for the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced on Monday.
Mr. Cotton is a person of the most prominent community officials in the United States to have contracted the virus.
Mr. Cuomo stated that Mr. Cotton, who experienced been overseeing the Port Authority’s response to the virus, experienced self-quarantined at his household and would be functioning remotely.
Hundreds of pupils were not in class on Monday as university districts and faculties, which includes Columbia and Hofstra Universities, experimented with to restrict the coronavirus outbreak.
In addition to Mr. Cotton, senior officials at the Port Authority who had labored around him were being also being analyzed for the coronavirus, the governor claimed.
A Port Authority spokeswoman mentioned that company workers who have been in “close speak to with him in current days” ended up also performing from property. She did not say how a lot of staff that involved.
the president of the Central Park Conservancy, a nonprofit that allows renovate and refurbish the 843-acre park in Manhattan. The conservancy did not straight away answer to a ask for for remark.
It is not distinct when Mr. Cotton was tested for the virus, but the broadcast journalist Katie Couric instructed on Monday that he only incredibly just lately commenced to self-quarantine. Ms. Couric claimed on Twitter that she observed Mr. Cotton, who is a longtime friend, on Saturday.
A representative for Ms. Couric did not straight away answer to a ask for for comment.
Mr. Cotton experienced worked as a law firm for about two decades at NBC Common, where by Ms. Couric was a longtime host of NBC’s “Today” show.
Some members of Mr. Cotton’s staff members figured out of his check success just right before Mr. Cuomo created the announcement. It was not distinct how a lot of of them would be examined or how a lot of had been quarantined.
“I could have been in get hold of with Rick Cotton,” the governor explained, who extra that he had not examined positive for it.
Yet another regional transportation official, Patrick J. Foye, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates New York City’s subways and buses, stated on Monday that he had not met Mr. Cotton in individual “in some time.”
“By all indicators, he seems to be in great health and fitness,” Mr. Foye explained at a information meeting.
The Port Authority operates the New York City area’s big airports — which include La Guardia, Kennedy Intercontinental and Newark Liberty Global Airports — and employs extra than 7,000 folks.
La Guardia is not an intercontinental airport like Kennedy, which is the key gateway to New York Metropolis for intercontinental site visitors and travelers.
Mr. Cotton, a good friend and ally of the governor, has run the company since 2017. Mr. Cuomo appointed him to the place.
Mr. Cotton’s office is in the headquarters of the Port Authority at four World Trade Center in Reduce Manhattan, the business office elaborate that the agency built and rebuilt after it was destroyed in the terrorist assaults on Sept. eleven, 2001.
Christina Goldbaum and Jesse McKinley contributed reporting.
