After waking from coma, New Rochelle’s ‘patient zero’ released from hospital

The attorney at the center of the coronavirus outbreak in New Rochelle, New York, has been released from the hospital, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says.

Cuomo did not identify Lawrence Garbuz by name during his daily news conference on Sunday.

“The ‘patient zero’ — what we call patient zero in Westchester, New Rochelle — who was very sick for a very long time, he has actually gone home,” Cuomo says, adding: “He’s out of the hospital.”

Originally diagnosed with pneumonia, Garbuz, 50, had been on a ventilator and in an induced coma from March 1. His wife, Adina Lewis Garbuz, announced on social media on March 18 that he had wakened from his coma. Garbuz was directly connected to 37 other confirmed cases of coronavirus in New York, including his wife, two of their children and a neighbor. Following his diagnosis, a one-mile containment zone was set up around his synagogue, the Young Israel of New Rochelle.

— JTA