Passenger who developed symptoms on Turkish Airlines flight, tests positive for Covid-19
He is now known as Case 113. Flying back to Singapore from London, the Frenchman, 42, transited in Istanbul, Turkey.
He left Istanbul on Turkish Airlines flight TK54, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, at about 7.20am (Singapore time) on Tuesday.
There were three pilots, 11 other crew members and about 140 passengers, including the man, on the 9½-hour flight.
At some point during the 8,700km journey, the man developed symptoms typical of a Covid-19 infection.
Shortly after the plane landed at Changi Airport at 4.50pm on Tuesday - about 45 minutes ahead of schedule - the man, who holds a work pass here, cleared immigration and entered Singapore.
It was only the next day that he went to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).
By Wednesday afternoon, he tested positive for the virus.
When the Ministry of Health (MOH) was informed of the results, it immediately began contact tracing for passengers who may have had contact with the man.
The man has no recent travel history to more severely affected countries and regions. But he had been in France, Portugal and the United Kingdom between Feb 8 and March 3.
He is isolated at NCID, and cannot yet go home.
He lives in the Mount Sophia area.
MOH said that prior to admission at NCID, the man had gone to Gleneagles Hospital for an unrelated matter .
It was discovered that some members of the crew on flight TK54 had been in close contact with the man, and they were about to fly back to Istanbul on Wednesday on flight TK55 at 11.35pm.
But the authorities were able to ground the flight.
It was eventually allowed to return to Turkey at about 2.10am yesterday with just the crew and no passengers.
Dr Fahrettin Koca, Turkey's Minister for Health, tweeted yesterday that the crew will be quarantined in Turkey for the next two weeks.
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