Mayor Eric Adams tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, his office reported — causing him to cancel many of his planned public events less than a week after several of his top aides were raided by federal law enforcement.
Adams’ Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy said in a text message, “The mayor said he didn’t feel great this morning and tested positive for COVID a little while ago.”
The apparent positive COVID-19 test caused Adams to cancel two of his public events on Monday afternoon and evening, including a roundtable with Jewish community and ethnic media outlets and a town hall on the Vanderbilt Avenue Open Street and Underhill Avenue redesign in Brooklyn.
It followed the mayor’s attendance at a press conference in eastern Queens early Monday afternoon and speaking at churches in the East New York section of Brooklyn on Sunday.
Levy said Adams will do what public events he can virtually this week as he quarantines in the mayoral residence at Gracie Mansion.
Regarding the mayor’s weekly Tuesday off-topic news conference, where reporters can ask him and senior members of his administration questions on any subject, Levy said the press team is “trying to figure out” whether they can do a virtual version of the event.
The mayor has held press conferences virtually in the past, when he had COVID-19 the last time in 2022 and when he has traveled to foreign countries.
Mayor Adams’ positive COVID test comes just days after news broke that several top members of his administration had their homes raided and electronic devices confiscated by federal law enforcement. Those officials include Police Commissioner Edward Caban, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks and senior mayoral adviser Tim Pearson.
The probe is reportedly a corruption investigation into the NYPD’s enforcement of nightlife businesses and is also looking at both Caban and Banks’ brothers — James Caban and Terence Banks.
Since the raids became public, the mayor has only faced a few questions, as he has not held an open question-and-answer session since then. If the Tuesday press conference is canceled, it is unclear when reporters will have their next chance to ask him about the probe.
