Two Studies Report COVID-19 Can Spread On Airplanes

Liputan6.com, Jakarta Incident spread COVID-19 on the plane still being investigated by researchers. But recently, a team of researchers from Vietnam tracked down a cluster of cases linked to a flight that arrived in Hanoi from London on March 2.

As reported CNN, a young woman and her sister traveled to Vietnam-Europe to visit Milan and Paris before heading to London – just as the coronavirus was breaking out there.

“A 27 year old businesswoman from Vietnam, whom we identified as a likelihood index case, has been in London since early February,” wrote Nguyen Cong Khanh of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi and colleagues.

“On February 22, the first case, her sister returned to Milan, Italy, and then traveled to Paris, France, for the annual Fashion Week before returning to London on February 25,” they wrote in the journal. Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The woman then boarded a flight to Hanoi on March 1. But when the woman left London, she developed a sore throat and cough while on a flight back to Vietnam. And at that time no one paid attention.

By the time he disembarked from the flight in Hanoi 10 hours later, 15 other people who were on the plane with him were infected, researchers reported on Friday.

“He was in business class and continued to have a sore throat and cough during the flight,” the researchers added. He went to the hospital three days after landing and tested positive for the virus.

Health officials then tracked down 217 passengers and crew who had been on the flight with him and found 12 business class passengers, two economy class passengers and one officer also infected. The researchers said there was no other way the 15 other people might have contracted it other than exposure to sick patients on board.

“The most likely route of transmission during flight is aerosol or droplet transmission from case 1, particularly for people sitting in business class. We conclude that the risk of transmission is SARS-CoV-2 on board aircraft during long flights it is true and has the potential to cause an increase in the number of infected people, even with arrangements such as in business class where there are more seats, “wrote Nguyen Khanh.

This incident shows how the coronavirus can spread on planes, and shows that just giving them a little distance will not completely protect them.

Another similar incident was the Boston-Hong Kong flight. However, the passenger allegedly infected two flight attendants – this was before airlines were required to wear masks.

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