ATLANTA (AP) – Passengers who flew on a jet with a Georgia man who later tested positive for the COVID-19 virus were never screened based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, local health officials said Tuesday.
The 56-year-old Fulton County man had traveled to Atlanta from Milan, Italy on Feb. 22 and didn’t show symptoms of the disease until a few days after his flight, county health officials said at a Tuesday news briefing.
“The recommendations from CDC were that the travelers on the plane did not need to be tested at this time,” said Dr. S. Elizabeth Ford, interim director of the Fulton County Department of Health.
“At the time that he landed he was asymptomatic, and so at this point we are not concerned about travelers,” she added. “At this point, according to the CDC, the infectivity rate occurs when the patients become symptomatic,” she added.
The man went to a doctor a few days after arriving home, and also had been notified that people at the same conference he had attended in Italy had tested positive for COVID-19, Ford said. The man and his son then tested positive and are recovering at home. Health officials have tested two other family members in the household, and were awaiting those results Tuesday.