As New York City ramps up its efforts to track the spread of COVID-19, city officials have been urging people who have flu-like symptoms and recently traveled to areas with outbreaks like China, Japan, South Korea, Italy and Iran to visit their doctors to get tested for the virus.

“If you feel flu-like symptoms (fever, cough and shortness of breath) and recently traveled to an area affected by Coronavirus ...Go to your doctor. If you have symptoms but no travel history, stay home and call your doctor,” said a recent tweet.

Official city health flyers with similar advice are being distributed around the city.

But some family doctors have been pushing back on that message, instead asking people to seek emergency care at hospitals instead. According to these physicians, especially those with small practices, they simply don’t have the appropriate facilities or protective gear to treat coronavirus patients. Sick individuals who walk into their waiting rooms risk infecting their staff and other patients.

The issue could potentially develop into a nightmare for unequipped doctors if cases begin to soar in New York. As of Thursday, there are now 13 known individuals who have been infected with the virus across the state, 10 of whom were linked to a Westchester lawyer who worked in Manhattan.

Dr. Elizabeth Gifford, who runs a small family practice in Park Slope, sent out an email blast earlier this week urging people not to come to her office.

“If you have a cough or fever, call or email me. Do not schedule an appointment,” the email read. “You should only leave your home to seek care if your symptoms are severe. Call me and I will help you determine the best diagnosis/treatment protocol.”

Gifford’s practice, like many small primary care doctors offices, lacks the capacity to treat people on site. Gifford said she hasn’t been able to obtain N95 masks to protect herself, although she’s tried reaching out to the city's health department and other sources.

“You have to put [patients] in a negative pressure room or a private isolation room until you wait for the people to come and do the test,” she said. “But at a private, small, private office like mine, I certainly don't have a negative pressure room. I have one exam room, so I don't have the facility to do that.”

In that situation she recommends reaching out to the New York City Health Department for guidance on how to get tested. If patients are having severe symptoms they should seek emergency care at a hospital, she said.

Allied Physicians Group, which has dozens of offices on across Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, sent an email urging patients to reach out using their "tele-health service" rather than arriving on site.

“If your child (or you) is experiencing coronavirus symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath and/or have been exposed, or have traveled to any place on the CDC cautionary list; please do not come into the office. Instead, we ask that all patients please call their provider first.”

Dr. Jay Begun is a pediatrician in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He said he’s working on a voicemail warning to patients with a similar message: If you suspect exposure, don’t come into the office.

“I don’t think the individual offices are necessarily equipped to handle it,” he said. Begun treated dozens of patients during last year’s measles outbreak, during which Williamsburg was ground zero. At that time, he also urged sick patients not to show up in their offices for fear of exposing others.

If a COVID-19 patient arrives in his office, he said, “It would be very similar to the measles. We’d have to call the Health Department, try to track down the [all the] exposures.”

Begun said the city’s health department had promised to send his office N95 masks in the coming days.

With an estimated 1,000 people in Westchester directed to self-quarantine through March 8th as a result of possible contact with the Westchester patient, the county set up a hotline for people who need information on what to do if they’ve been directed to do so. Among the frequently asked questions answered on the hotline was what to do if you suspect exposure and are exhibiting symptoms like cough, fever or shortness of breath: “Call your healthcare provider. Call before you go to the doctors office, ER or urgent care.”

But Mayor Bill de Blasio has himself slipped up on these instructions, frequently telling people who feel sick and suspect possible exposure to the coronavirus to "go to a doctor." During his weekly interview with the mayor last Friday, WNYC's Brian Lehrer pointed out that Dr. Oxiris Barbot, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, had said that people should call their health provider first.

"It's the same thing. It's just a procedural point," de Blasio responded. "But I don't want people not getting to healthcare because they don't know who to call."