Businesswoman infected 15 with coronavirus on flight from London to Vietnam, study finds

A file picture of staff cleaning an EasyJet plane at Gatwick Airport: PA
A file picture of staff cleaning an EasyJet plane at Gatwick Airport: PA

A single passenger infected 15 others with coronavirus on a 10-hour flight from London to Hanoi, a study has revealed.

The passenger, a 27-year-old businesswoman, had a sore throat and a cough before boarding the business class area of the flight on March 1, according to a report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

She tested positive for the virus days later, after unknowingly passing it on to 14 fellow passengers and a crew member, Metro reported.

The CDC's report concluded that the most likely route of transmission was determined by the report to be from "aerosol or droplet transmission".

It added: "The risk for on-board transmission of SARS-CoV-2 during long flights is real and has the potential to cause Covid-19 clusters of substantial size, even in business class-like settings with spacious seating arrangements well beyond the established distance used to define close contact on airplanes."

11,000 people have caught the virus on planes (AFP via Getty Images)
11,000 people have caught the virus on planes (AFP via Getty Images)

The Washington Post has reported that around 11,000 people caught coronavirus while travelling on planes.

The CDC's guidelines state that typically viruses do not spread easily on flights due to how air circulates and is filtered on airplanes.

However, it adds: "Social distancing is difficult on crowded flights, and sitting within six feet of others, sometimes for hours, may increase your risk of getting Covid-19.’

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