Gov. Pataki's Manhattan office reopens; New York mayor reports no new cases of anthrax

By KAREN MATTHEWS
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK – Gov. George Pataki's Manhattan office reopened Monday morning, five days after it was evacuated because of a positive test for the probability of anthrax.

"We're going back in," the governor said on CNN. "The offices are open as we speak. ... Everybody feels great, I feel great."

He said no source had been found for the positive test result, but added, "the other tests were negative and it's been cleaned up."

The governor's Manhattan office was evacuated Wednesday after a sample of suspected anthrax was found and initially tested positive. Another 140 samples were collected later in the week, and all of those tested negative, said John Signor, a spokesman for the state Department of Health.

A culture of the sample that tested positive was still being observed for a final result, Signor said. Authorities had suggested that the anthrax, if that's what it is confirmed to be, might have been brought in by officers who worked on anthrax cases elsewhere in the city.

Pataki, who was not tested for anthrax, was given the antibiotic Cipro as a precaution, but he said Monday, "I'm actually off Cipro now."

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Sunday that a host of other tests performed at media organizations in the city had come back negative for evidence of anthrax.

To speed the testing, the federal Department of Defense has provided the city with a rapid-response team, Giuliani said.

"They have equipment and people that can expedite analysis so that we don't have to send out as many samples as we're sending out and therefore can do the testing right here in New York City," he said.

The team will eventually include 15 people.

Giuliani said environmental tests at ABC, where a 7-month-old baby was believed to have contracted the disease, also returned negative. Investigators could not identify the source of the child's infection, and no suspect letter has been found.

The baby, the son of an ABC producer, visited the network's offices Sept. 28, leading investigators to believe the infection may have happened there.

Giuliani said Sunday that the number of New Yorkers infected with the bacteria remained at four, with one case each at NBC, CBS, ABC and the New York Post.

Environmental samples from several media outlets and local schools have all yielded negative results, Giuliani said, though several were still pending. The Associated Press announced Monday that samples taken from its Rockefeller Center mailroom were conclusively found to be negative for anthrax.

Most of the media tests were environmental, but at NBC more than 1,300 people have been tested for exposure. All those tests came back negative, the mayor said.

CNN, Fox and the Daily News were among the other news organizations where testing was conducted.

No employees in the governor's office have tested positive for the disease.

An anthrax-contaminated letter was found Friday in the mailroom of the New York Post, after an employee was diagnosed with anthrax last week.

The letter was addressed to "Editor, New York Post" in similar block letters to those sent to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. It was found, unopened, in a bundle of letters that had been separated because they had no return addresses, the Post said.

AP-WS-10-22-01 1106EDT