Korean Air Flight Attendant Tests Positive for CovID19

South Korean media outlets are reporting that a cabin crew member working for Korean Air Lines Co. has been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus.

“The Korean Air flight attendant is being taken care of by health authorities,” the official at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said over the phone.

 
The cabin crew member was found to be infected with COVID-19 after serving on the Incheon-Los Angeles route January February 19-20. Previously, the flight attendant worked on the Incheon-Tel Aviv route about a week before the LAX flight. KCDC is still determining details of the person’s itinerary and have yet to formally release it as reference for contact tracing.

The flight attendant may have contracted the virus from a group of South Korean churchgoers who went on a pilgrimage to Israel February 8 – 16.

UPDATE: Late in the week, the South Korean consulate in L.A. released a statement about the flight attendant’s itinerary. During her brief layover in Los Angeles, she visited only two places, neither one of which was in or near Koreatown. Those two places have yet to be revealed.

Korean Air, which has been hit hard by the spread of the coronavirus that has hurt the airline industry as a whole, declined to comment on the matter.

As of Wednesday morning in Seoul, the country has a reported total of 1,146 confirmed cases with over 14,880 people tested for the illness. The death toll is at 11.

* Featured photo of KAL flight attendants above does not include the infected cabin crew.