US authorities were investigating two new anthrax contamination cases on Monday, as another Capitol Hill office building received the all-clear to reopen all but three of its offices.
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said a tape sent by NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw's office to City Hall had tested positive for anthrax.
"They sent it off for testing several times and it came back as positive," Giuliani told reporters on Sunday.
Environmental tests at City Hall have come back negative and no one there has tested positive for anthrax so far, officials said.
The tape was sent for testing after the news that Brokaw's assistant had contracted anthrax, Giuliani said.
Over the past month, there have been 17 confirmed anthrax cases in the US, including 10 cases of inhalation anthrax. Four people have died after inhaling anthrax spores amid a spate of contaminated letters mailed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
Environmental tests cleared the way for the reopening on Monday of most of the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill. The building was shut down for testing on Oct. 26 after anthrax was detected in the offices of three congressmen.
"Those offices will remain closed," Lieutenant Dan Nichols, spokesman for the US Capitol police said on Sunday.
"Those will be isolated, but the rest of the building will return to normal operations," Nichols said.
With the Longworth building reopening its doors to the public, all three major House of Representatives office buildings will be back in business.
However, the Hart Senate Office Building, where an anthrax-laden letter was opened in the office of Majority Leader Tom Daschle last month, remains closed.
The Veterans Affairs Medical Center is the latest site in Washington to be touched by the anthrax scare. The potentially deadly bacteria was found in the hospital's mailroom and five mail workers were put on antibiotics as a precaution.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease told CNN's Late Edition it was "extremely unlikely" any of the 200 patients at the medical center could be exposed to the bacteria as long as it was contained to the mailroom.
In another Washington-area case, a suspicious package of white powder found in a private car in Bethesda, Maryland did not contain anthrax spores, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
"It is negative. It is not anthrax," FBI spokesman Peter Gulotta was quoted as saying. "This joins the many other hoaxes that have been called in lately."
The investigation began on Friday after results of a field test on the car registered positive for anthrax, the report said.
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