Capitol reopens Monday; congressional offices stay closed

Washington has been rattled by the recent announcements of anthrax cases.

(CNN) - The U.S. Capitol building will reopen Monday, but House and Senate offices will remain closed, a Capitol Police spokesman said Sunday.

Environmental sweeps at the Capitol for anthrax came back negative, Capitol Police Lt. Dan Nichols said Sunday. Those findings prompted scientists and health-care professionals to suggest the building reopen, he said.

The office buildings will remain closed until definitive test results about the extent of contamination with anthrax are obtained, he said.

"We're taking this one day at a time," Nichols said.

A Washington postal worker was diagnosed with inhalation anthrax, the third confirmed case of this most serious form of the disease since October 1.

Washington Mayor Anthony Williams said the employee works in the Brentwood mail facility that processes almost all mail to the District of Columbia.

The Washington Health Department is investigating additional cases of possible anthrax infection, including one involving a person connected to the Brentwood mail facility, who has been hospitalized.

Until tests determine whether the people have anthrax, they are being treated as if they do -- with intravenous antibiotics, Washington Health Director Dr. Ivan Walks said.

CORRECTION A letter sent to an Argentine family from the United States, containing tourism pamphlets, has tested positive for the presence of anthrax, the minister of health said. A CNN report that the letter, sent from Miami, Florida, had a return address for Carnival Cruise Lines, was not correct. CNN regrets the error. The letter did contain a pamphlet that mentioned cruises offered by Carnival, but was not an official pamphlet for Carnival. So far, the one person in the family who handled the letter has tested negative for anthrax, Minister of Health Hector Lombardo said Friday.  IN-DEPTH  VIDEO/AUDIO   •  Investigators baffled by 94-year-old woman's death  MORE STORIES   •  Gephardt: Anthrax cleanup 'tougher than expected'   •  Official: CIA uses anthrax, but no link to letters  EXTRA INFORMATION   •  Anthrax symptoms   •  Tracking the bacteria  RESOURCES   •  Advice on suspicious packages   •  Message board  The latest news

The man was hospitalized on Friday at Inova Fairfax Hospital in northern Virginia with flu-like symptoms. Hospital spokeswoman Janice Moore told CNN the man is in "serious but stable" condition. (Full story)

The Brentwood facility and an air mail handling center near Baltimore-Washington International Airport will be closed indefinitely for environmental testing on a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a postal executive said Sunday. Authorities set up an auxiliary center over the weekend so mail delivery would not be disrupted.

More than 2,000 postal employees at the two facilities were tested and treated for possible anthrax exposure Sunday.

In additon, 28 Capitol Hill workers were exposed to anthrax in the Senate Hart Building last week after a letter laced with the bacteria was sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota.

In the past month, two employees of American Media Inc. in Boca Raton, Florida, were also diagnosed with inhalation anthrax. Photo editor Robert Stevens, 63, died October 5, and Ernesto Blanco, 73, is receiving treatment at Cedars Medical Center in Miami, Florida. Blanco's stepdaughter said Sunday he is "doing a lot better" after he was moved out of the intensive care unit Thursday.

Latest developments

• A letter found by police in the mailroom of the New York Post newspaper has tested positive for anthrax and has the same postmark as anthrax-laced letters sent to Daschle and NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, an FBI official said Saturday. (Full story)

• The most recent tests for anthrax in Gov. George Pataki's Manhattan offices were negative, New York state health officials said Saturday. A preliminary test of a sample from one area of the offices came back positive Wednesday. More complete tests are being conducted on that sample. Results from 90 additional tests came back negative.

• Two New Jersey postal workers -- a Trenton letter carrier and a mail sorter at the Hamilton Township distribution center -- have tested positive for cutaneous (skin) anthrax. Investigators are looking for a link between these infections and the anthrax letters sent to Brokaw and Daschle, both of which apparently came from New Jersey. (Full story)

• Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge had said federal officials know where some of the anthrax letters were put in the mail. But FBI Special Agent Linda Vizi in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said the FBI has not pinpointed a single mailbox or a single source of the anthrax.

• A laboratory in Brazil reported Saturday that a letter -- which was sent to The New York Times' bureau in Rio de Janeiro -- tested positive for anthrax in preliminary tests has subsequently tested negative. The Times said the letter, sent from New York City on October 5 and received on October 16, seemed suspicious because it had no return address.

CNN's Kate Snow, Jonathan Karl, Susan Candiotti, Eileen O'Connor and Terry Frieden contributed to this report.