Filipino diplomat is the first coronavirus at U.N. New York

A female diplomat in New York has tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday. She is from the Philippines and the first known case of coronavirus at U.N. New York headquarters.

“As of today, the Philippine Mission is in lockdown, and all personnel are instructed to self-quarantine and to seek medical attention should they develop the symptoms. We are assuming that all of us have been infected,” stated by Philippines acting U.N. Ambassador Kira Azucena.

There are twelve diplomats at the Filipino mission located on 5^th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan based on the online U.N. diplomatic staff directory.

The diplomat had recently come back from Florida and she was described in a Twitter post as young, active and “doing well” by the Philippines Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin.

The ill diplomat represented the Philippines in the U.N. General Assembly’s legal affairs committee. Azucena described the diplomat as the last person who stayed at the U.N. headquarters on Monday for about half an hour when she was asymptomatic.

She started showing flu-like symptoms on Tuesday and decided to visit her doctor. “She got the call today that she tested positive for COVID-19,” Azucena announced on Thursday.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric stated that the Filipino diplomat met with two other diplomats and visited only one U.N. meeting room, which had been cleaned three times since Monday. He said the U.N. medical services were in the process of contacting those diplomats.