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Law360 (March 19, 2020, 2:31 PM EDT ) The Manhattan attorney who was the first New Yorker diagnosed with COVID-19 as a result of community spread is recovering well from the illness, though he remains hospitalized, according to a post his wife made on social media Wednesday.
Adina Lewis Garbuz, wife of attorney Lawrence Garbuz of Lewis & Garbuz PC, wrote on Facebook that her husband was awake and had been extubated.
Lawrence Garbuz, who lives in Westchester County but works in Manhattan, was the second diagnosed case of COVID-19 in New York and the first person who appeared to have contracted the illness in the state, as opposed to in an area known to be affected.
"Lawrence is awake and alert and seems to be on the road to full recovery," Adina Garbuz wrote on Facebook. "He still has healing to do but is on a very good trajectory."
She wrote that the family has not been able to visit him in person, but that they have been able to communicate via FaceTime. Immediately after the diagnosis, the family was reportedly self-quarantined with Lawrence Garbuz at their home in Westchester.
The city also closed the Bronx high school his daughter attended, and Yeshiva University, where the attorney's son is an undergraduate, said it is working with government health officials to take "every necessary precaution."
In her post, Adina Garbuz also praised the medical team caring for him and all the medical staff working to treat patients with COVID-19 now. The family is also willing to participate in any research that might help doctors learn how to treat or prevent the illness, she added.
"Coronavirus does not discriminate," she wrote. "At this time, we are all just human beings facing this all together. Feelings of good will and wanting to help one another hopefully is the silver lining of this trying situation we, meaning the whole world, have found ourselves in."
Since Garbuz first sought treatment in late February for an illness later diagnosed as COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, over 2,400 people have been diagnosed with the virus in New York state, according to the most recent numbers released by the New York State Department of Health. Of those cases, 1,339 are in New York City, though the city's health department reports 2,009 cases.
The city has closed public schools, prohibited large gatherings and restricted restaurants, bars and cafes to delivery and takeout service only. Officials have also asked people to stay at home, except for essential activities like grocery shopping.
The legal industry has also been highly affected, with many firms closing office locations, restricting travel, encouraging working from home and canceling events.
--Editing by Alyssa Miller.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
