NYC Ebola Watch: 5-Year Old is Negative, Cuomo Waffles, Brooklyn Beep Bowls, DOE Informs

As the City’s health crisis deepened today with reports of a possible second confirmed case of Ebola, many different threads have emerged in a fast-moving saga that has transfixed New Yorkers.

Multiple news outlets reported this evening that a 5-year-old boy who recently returned to the Bronx from West Africa and was hospitalized last night at Bellevue Hospital, has tested negative for the virus.

The Daily News reported that the young patient, who registered a “very high” fever and was rushed to the hospital at 9 p.m. Sunday night, will be held for further observation.

Over the weekend New York Governor Andrew Cuomo put his foot down, mandating that all medical professionals returning from fighting the spread of Ebola in West Africa be quarantined, then quickly backtracked on his position.

Time Magazine reported that Cuomo, in conjunction with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, decreed Friday night that any medical professionals arriving at either JFK, LaGuardia or Newark Airports from Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone—the three West African nations ravaged by Ebola—would automatically be subject to a 21-day quarantine.

Cuomo’s stance was in direct opposition to the Centers for Disease Control’s position that medical personal working in West Africa should be allowed voluntary at-home isolation rather than mandatory quarantine.

Under pressure today brought by The White House and medical professionals, Gov. Cuomo—who is running for re-election this fall—shifted his position. The Times reported that Cuomo reluctantly agreed that “medical workers who had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa but did not show symptoms of the disease would be allowed to remain at home and would receive compensation for lost income.”

Meanwhile, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams—epitomizing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Everything is Under Control” mantra—donned his bowling shoes Saturday for a few frames at The Gutter, the Williamsburg bowling alley where Dr. Craig Spencer, NYC’s first confirmed Ebola case, spent an eventful evening last Wednesday.

According to the New York Observer, Brooklyn’s Number 1 bowler was nonplussed about the possible risks of following in the wake of the City’s most notorious medical patient:

“The medical industry is on top of it,” Mr. Adams assured reporters.

Mr. Adams also noted his office would be offering free vaccinations against the influenza virus, whose initial effects resemble Ebola’s, to avoid a widespread panic.

“We don’t want, every time there’s symptoms there’s a cold or a flu, for people to believe there’s something out of the ordinary,” said Mr. Adams.

While the politicians squabble—the first actual casualty of the City’s Ebola crisis may be the relationship between Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio—the New York City Department of Education is getting the word out to 1.1 million public school students about the risks posed by the viral infection that has claimed thousands of West African lives:

The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOH) are working together to ensure that you have the most up-to-date guidance about Ebola. Here is a letter to families from Chancellor Carmen Fariña and Dr. Mary T. Bassett, Commissioner, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The facts below are important to help you understand how low the risk of Ebola exposure is:

· Ebola is spread only by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. You cannot be infected simply by being near someone who has Ebola.

· The Ebola outbreak is concentrated in only three countries – Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.

· If someone has traveled to Liberia, Guinea, or Sierra Leone in the past 21 days but does not have any symptoms, he or she cannot infect anyone else with Ebola.

In case you simply cannot get enough Ebola news, the Times is running a live blog which provides as much detail as any hypochondriac might desire.

PHOTO CAPTION: Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams in front of The Gutter on Saturday