Flight Attendant Working Out Of LAX Diagnosed With Coronavirus

LOS ANGELES, CA — A woman who worked as a flight attendant for Korean Air servicing the route between Los Angeles and South Korea has been diagnosed with the Coronavirus.

The flight attendant worked flights between Los Angeles International Airport and Seoul, South Korea, on Feb. 19 and 20, according to several South Korean media outlets. She flew out of LAX within five days after working a flight packed with coronavirus patients headed from Israel to Seoul. That would put her within the virus's incubation period when she worked the LAX flight. Los Angeles County health officials are aware of the South Korean media reports about the flight attendant. Health officials have been screening travelers at LAX from countries where the virus is spreading.

Mayor Eric Garcetti Wednesday assured residents that extensive precautions are being taken at the airport to help prevent a spread of the virus.

"We're disinfecting LAX every hour," the mayor told reporters while attending a housing-project groundbreaking in the Los Feliz area. "We're making sure that those points of entry and those places where we could see somebody come in and create a vector are secure as we can possibly make them, knowing you can never have 100% security."

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The woman had serviced a flight from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Seoul on Feb. 15, South Korea's Center for Disease Control said. A church group was on the flight and at least 30 members of the group were diagnosed with coronavirus, South Korean authorities said.

The diagnosis was first reported in South Korea.

Korean Air did not confirm the reports, but has closed its operations center at Incheon Airport in order to disinfect the area.

About 1,150 cases of coronavirus have been reported in South Korea, including a 23-year-old U.S. service member stationed in the country.

The soldier "is currently in self quarantine at his off-base residence... Korean and U.S. military health professionals are actively conducting contact tracing to determine whether any others may have been exposed," according to a U.S. Forces Korea statement.

Garcetti told reporters precautions against the coronavirus are also in place at the port complex, where crew members on cargo ships from Asian ports are not being permitted ashore.

"They're coming up to the dock and we're making sure they get their food, whatever they need, in there, but -- not that we have any reason to believe that they've been exposed -- but they're not permitted to go out and be about in the city, just to be safe," he said.

Worldwide, more than 81,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, including 2,770 deaths, the vast majority of them in China. More than 50 cases have been confirmed in the United States, including one each in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

City News Service and Patch staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.