Giuliani: Part of Rockefeller Center Closed as Anthrax Precaution

Back to the Anthrax Spread by Terrorists Page

NewsMax.com

Friday, Oct. 12, 2001 12:49 p.m. EDT

New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced Friday that part of Rockefeller Center, home to NBC studios in New York, will be closed as a precaution while the Centers for Disease Control test work areas for anthrax.

NBC reported Friday morning that an employee in its "Nightly News" division had tested positive for exposure to the disease.

"The CDC feels that the best thing to do is to test, environmentally test, the areas where there may have -- and I emphasize may have -- been exposure," Giuliani told reporters. "So that would be one floor of this building and one or two other areas."

"They're going to be closed down for a while," he said.

Giuliani said the CDC and New York City Department of Health had ordered the closure "out of an excess of caution."

CDC officials believe that the NBC employee was exposed to anthrax after opening an envelope containing a suspicious white powder on Sept. 25, Giuliani said. He addded, however, that tests showed the powder was not contaminated by anthrax.

Another suspicious letter containing a powdery substance was received Friday at the New York Times, but there are no reports of anthrax exposure there, Giuliani said.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bioterrorism
War on Terrorism