An Air Canada flight attendant has tested positive for the coronavirus in Hawaii, and was the first of that state’s 16 current COVID-19 patients, according to local media.

“As a general rule, for privacy reasons we cannot comment on our employees,” Air Canada’s media relations department said in an email to the Star.

But Maui Now reported the female fight attendant arrived in Maui on March 8, developed symptoms March 9 and self-isolated at the Royal Lahaina Resort until her test came back positive. She was then placed in isolation.

The paper said Air Canada had made arrangements to fly her home.

“We believe that any risk to any passengers on the previous flight is low,” said Gov. David Ige at a news conference March 15.

“We also understand that this individual was exposed to a confirmed COVID-19 case in Germany on March 4,” said Maui Mayor Michael Victorino.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, two passengers on Air Transat Flight TS233 from Faro, Portugal to Toronto were taken to hospital after showing signs consistent with coronavirus. “They were taken to a local hospital. I don’t know if it was confirmed at the hospital. We were treating it as a precautionary,” said Peel Police Cst. Sarah Patten.

While WestJet is posting public notices online regarding passengers on their planes who have subsequently tested positive for the sometimes-deadly virus, Air Canada is not. So there is no way for the public to know which flights its infected attendant worked, or even what other flights might have had coronavirus activity.

Air Canada says contacting passengers who might have come into contact with someone carrying the virus on a flight is the role of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

“We take direction from the Public Health Agency of Canada, which is responsible for notification and with whom we have an agreed protocol for handling all such matters to ensure accuracy and without causing unnecessary concern,” the airline said in its email.

According to the agency’s latest numbers, 69 per cent of Canada’s coronavirus cases are people who have travelled, with an additional 13 per cent patients who were close contacts of travellers.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees — the union representing Air Canada’s flight attendants — has recommended that flight attendants be provided with N95 masks that would protect them against the virus.

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“But this has not happened,” the union said in a letter to the Star. “CUPE is urging flight attendants to force passengers with symptoms to wear masks that minimize their risk of infection to others. But this is not federally mandated yet.

“The union recommends that if passengers refuse to wear the mask, that flight attendants should wear a face shield to protect droplets from getting into their eyes. But flight attendants aren’t currently provided with these either.”

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