Three Transport Security Administration agents have tested positive for the coronavirus at Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), the agency reported on Twitter on Tuesday.
“The officers are receiving medical care, and all TSA employees they have come in contact with over the past 14 days are quarantined at home,” the TSA said in a statement, The Los Angeles Times reported.
“Screening checkpoints remain open, and the agency is working with the CDC, as well as the California Department of Public Health and the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, to monitor the situation as well as the health and safety of our employees and the traveling public,” it said.
The airport also announced on Twitter, assuring, “the safety & health of our employees and the traveling public are #1.
SJC has been informed by @TSA that 3 TSA employees have tested positive for #COVID-19. The safety & health of our employees and the traveling public are #1. We continue to follow @HealthySCC guidance for preventing the spread of COVID-19, and remain open for business. #SJCUpdates pic.twitter.com/QtSdEU8AI6
— Mineta San Jose International Airport (@FlySJC) March 11, 2020
“We continue to monitor with concern the evolving outbreak of COVID-19. The health and safety of TSA officers remains my number one priority,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske wrote on Twitter. “We are working with local health officials to take containment steps for employees and passengers.”
Two Screeners at LAX Tested Positive Last Week
Last week, two cases of confirmed coronavirus infection occurred with employees at Los Angeles Airport (LAX), the LA Times reported.
Both employees were working on the screening unit checking arriving passengers for signs of the coronavirus, officials said.
“They are likely to have had the same exposure,” said L.A. County health department director Barbara Ferrer in a news conference on Friday, according to the outlet.
“We need CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to go in and work with the staff that are at the quarantine station, look at who the travelers were that came through that day, assess the protections that are being used and assessed where exactly the exposure was,” Ferrer added.
“We know that as we see increased cases. There’s greater concern in some of our communities as to what this means,” Ferrer said, adding that the risk of contamination for the general public remains low, but that it would be sensible to maintain practicing good public health hygiene.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security described second the worker at LAX that was diagnosed with coronavirus was a medical screener who “wore all the correct protective equipment and took necessary protections on the job,” the outlet reported.
“As soon as the individual began to feel sick, they self-quarantined, saw a physician, and reported to the appropriate authorities and officials,” a DHS spokesperson said in the statement.
