COVID-19: US teacher isolates in toilet for five hours after testing positive mid-flight

After testing positive for COVID-19 disease during a mid-flight through a journey from Chicago to Iceland, a woman from the United States described how she isolated herself to an aircraft restroom cubicle. Marisa Fotieo, a Michigan school teacher, claimed that her throat started to hurt halfway through the trip, so she went to the restroom to conduct a quick COVID-19 test, which showed she had tested positive. Fotieo told NBC News, “I just took my rapid test and I brought it into the bathroom, and... there were two lines (indicating a positive test).  

Following the mid-flight test, Fotieo revealed that she spent the rest of the trip in the lavatory, dependent on flight attendant Ragnhildur "Rocky" Eirksdottir for food and beverages, as per The Guardian. 

US school teacher on her bathroom isolation

The US school teacher went on to say that there were 150 people on the aircraft, and her biggest fear was contaminating the passengers. "POV you test positive for Covid while over the Atlantic Ocean,” Fotieo said on TikTok, sharing the story with a brief video within the confined bathroom. She also added, "Shout out to Icelandair for my VIP quarantine quarters." 

Since it was released on 21 December, Fotieo's TikTok video has been seen over 4 million times, with viewers asking how she was able to board the aircraft. While responding to the queries of the viewers, Fotieo wrote in the comment section that she had gotten two negative PCR tests before boarding. Further, the school teacher informed the TikTok users that she did not reach her destination. Despite that, she was quarantined in Iceland. As per BBC, when she arrived in Iceland, Fotieo said she had isolated herself in a Red Cross hotel.

Marisa Fotieo told CNN during an interview that she had been completely inoculated with a booster dose and was en route to Switzerland with her brother and father when she tested positive in the middle of the trip. 

Image: AP/ Unsplash/ Representative Image