COVID-19: 2 University Of Minnesota Students Who Landed At MSP Had Contact With Infected Person
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The Minnesota Department of Health says two Delta passengers who arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Tuesday have gone into self-quarantine because of the coronavirus, or COVID-19.
The University of Minnesota says they are two students who were traveling to Minnesota from Europe, and they admitted to having direct contact with a third passenger who tested positive for the virus and was not allowed to board the flight.
Daniel Huff with the Minnesota Department of Health says the two students did not have symptoms of the virus, which is why they were allowed to fly. But they were taken to MSP Airport's quarantine stations upon arrival.
"We are monitoring them, they were met by a quarantine officer here at the airport, which is standard procedure for the CDC quarantine officer," Huff said.
They are being asked to self-quarantine for the next 14 days. MDH staff will check in on them periodically to see if symptoms COVID-19 develops.
"There will be people assigned to them to make sure they have food, how they're doing and everything else," Gov. Walz said.
The health department says until those two people who arrived at MSP show signs of COVID-19 they will not be officially tested. The Health Department says they have no concerns for the other passengers that were on that flight.
This flight was one of several European flights that comes into MSP daily. On Wednesday, ISU student and Minnesota native Leah Gebecke arrived home from Urbino, Italy, where she had been studying abroad since early January.
"It's definitely good to be home and safe, but it's still a little disappointing to have our trip cut short," Gebeke said.
Gebeke quickly had to book a flight home after the CDC declared Italy at a level 3 warning and ISU suspended all their Italy study abroad programs.
"It was just a huge shock to all of us knowing that Saturday we got this email and we had to be out of Italy by March 6, it was just crazy," Gebeke explained.
Several universities in Minnesota and throughout the U.S. are suspending study abroad programs for the spring in countries where COVID-19 is most prominent.