2 in self-qurantine after overseas exposure to the coronavirus

Published 7:01 am Thursday, March 5, 2020

By Euan Kerr

State health officials are monitoring two people now under self-quarantine after they came in close contact with someone confirmed to have the COVID-19 virus while in Europe.

They were checked on the plane and both tested negative upon arrival Tuesday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, said Dan Huff, assistant commissioner with the Minnesota Department of Health.

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“Right now we are just monitoring those folks, and they have been just asked to stay home, binge some Netflix, for about 14 days,” Huff said. “If they were to become symptomatic, we would test them, but at this time we don’t have any concern for folks on the plane.”

Huff said he knows of no other people in the state under voluntary quarantine, and that all coronavirus tests done on people in Minnesota so far have come back negative.

Other passengers on the plane will be contacted by health officials if anyone on the flight were to test positive with COVID-19 at a later date, the Health Department said.