3:47 p.m.
ET, September 23, 2020
Thousands of passengers on commercial flights may
have been exposed to coronavirus in 2020, CDC says
From CNN's
Pete Muntean, Jamie Gumbrecht, and Greg Wallace
The US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says thousands of passengers on
board commercial flights may have been exposed to coronavirus since the start
of 2020.
In a
statement emailed to CNN, the CDC says it was made aware of 1,600 flights
between January and August where a person on board may have had Covid-19,
potentially exposing 10,900 people "within a 6-foot range for droplet
transmission" to coronavirus.
"CDC
identified and notified relevant health departments about these 10,900 on-board
close contacts," said the statement.
CDC said it
has received reports of Covid-19 cases among people who were identified as
contacts on flights, but noted this data is limited by incomplete contact
information, delayed notification of an infectious traveler and incomplete
information about testing and outcomes for contacts, among other factors.
The new
data, first reported by The Washington Post, comes as air carriers are
ratcheting up their insistence that air travel is safe. Air travel in the
United States remains at roughly 30% of last year's levels.
"You
are a lot safer in an airplane... than you are probably in your own home,"
Nick Calio of Airlines for America told CNN on Tuesday. "People don’t like
being in a confined space, however, as opposed to being in your house, in a
grocery store, in a church, in a bar or restaurant, or even a playground,
you’re a lot better off.”
In June,
Vice President Mike Pence called for airlines to implement a contact-tracing
app, but no announcement has been made since.
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