Dr. Adam Singer of Stony Brook University Hospital says the first patient it saw suspected of having COVID-19 in the emergency department was on Feb. 7 – much earlier than the first reported case on Long Island.

The findings from Dr. Singer and others were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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“For clinicians in areas that have not yet been hard hit, the pandemic wave will surely come. Persons under investigation for Covid-19 should be treated as if they are infected,” the report states.

Dr. Singer joined News 12 to speak about the findings.