Woman may have caught coronavirus in airplane toilet, researchers say

Researchers say they have evidence that a woman caught coronavirus on a flight -- perhaps in the jet's restroom. The 28-year-old woman was among about 300 South Koreans evacuated from Italy at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in Milan last March, the researchers wrote in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. "On the flight from Milan, Italy, to South Korea, she wore an N95 mask, except when she used a toilet," they wrote. "The toilet was shared by passengers sitting nearby, including an asymptomatic patient. She was seated three rows away from the asymptomatic patient," they added. The South Korean officials who organized the flight had put into effect full infection control measures and tested everyone before they boarded. All the passengers and crew were quarantined when they got to South Korea, as well. Six passengers tested positive soon after arrival in South Korea. The 28-year-old woman developed symptoms eight days after she got home and was hospitalized. "Given that she did not go outside and had self-quarantined for three weeks alone at her home in Italy before the flight and did not use public transportation to get to the airport, it is highly likely that her infection was transmitted in the flight via indirect contact with an asymptomatic patient," the researchers at Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine in Seoul wrote.<br/>