Two people who tested positive for coronavirus were in courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn this week, officials said.
A legal intern who spent the last two weeks in Manhattan Family Court, tested positive for the virus after going to the hospital Monday with pneumonia, according to the state courts website.
The two courtrooms where the intern spent time, were deep cleaned and all the cases in those parts were postponed. Also, court staff who may have been exposed to the person were sent home, the site said.
Meanwhile, a Vera Institute employee, working in Brooklyn Supreme Court at 320 Jay Street, informed the courts late Thursday that they contracted the virus, state courts spokesman Lucian Chalfen confirmed to The Post.
“He has not been in the office since, but we cannot know for sure he did not contract it earlier,” Chalfen said.
Vera employees learned about their colleague’s diagnosis on Thursday and has employees working from home except for a few who reported on Friday.
Chalfen said staff with the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which has stepped up its cleaning schedule in recent weeks, has deep cleaned the area around Vera’s office space.
On Thursday, state courts announced they would be rolling out warning notices statewide barring at-risk people from entering courthouses. They have also encouraged judges to postpone cases and conduct remote hearings by video and phone where possible.
The chief administrative judge for the state court system issued an order prohibiting anyone who has tested positive for coronavirus or has been quarantined from entering state courthouses.
Also prohibited is anyone who has recently traveled to China, Iran, Italy, Japan or South Korea.
The move came after a lawyer with the virus had been inside a White Plains courthouse in matrimonial and family courts four days last week.
A different lawyer from Westchester was diagnosed with the virus last week and is patient zero for an outbreak in New Rochelle.
A mile-radius containment area has been set up around New Rochelle as a result of the spread from the man, Lawrence Garbuz to others in the community.
Manhattan federal court is suspending jury trials scheduled to begin next week and is halting US naturalization ceremonies for immigrants as well after Friday, officials have said.
