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CDC helps identify plane passengers related to NC virus case

by The Associated Press
| March 4, 2020 6:08 PM

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Federal health officials said Wednesday they are helping North Carolina identify passengers aboard a plane with a man who tested positive for coronavirus.

Top federal officials met Wednesday morning with airline executives and then answered reporters' questions about efforts to identify those aboard a plane back from Washington state with the man who visited a long-term care facility where there was an outbreak. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said his agency is working with North Carolina and the airlines to find the other passengers.

"My understanding is we have the manifest. Now the trick is to go find them,” he said.

Members of the man's household have been quarantined, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported. Also, a number of people within Wake County and elsewhere in the state have been asked to quarantine themselves after having been near the sick patient after he began to show symptoms , said Chris Kippes, director of Wake County’s division of public health, at a news conference. The patient is in isolation at home.

Gov. Roy Cooper told a news conference on Tuesday that the patient tested positive for COVID-19 after visiting the long-term care facility in Washington. Officials at Raleigh-Durham International Airport released a statement confirming the man passed through the facility, but “was not experiencing symptoms" when they traveled through RDU.