Jeremy Olson

Star Tribune

Two people arriving at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport on Tuesday have been instructed to self-quarantine themselves for 14 days due to their “close contact” with someone in Europe who has been infected with the novel coronavirus that is spreading across the globe.

The Minnesota Department of Health announced the action on Wednesday so that the travelers can learn if they too are infected before they interact with any more people.

“The measures taken to isolate and monitor potentially exposed passengers are designed to keep the risk of spread to others as low as possible,” the department said in a news release.

A medical professional from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention evaluated the travelers on the plane and determined they did not have COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, China, earlier this winter. Other travelers on the plane will be notified if the two at-risk passengers end up being diagnosed with COVID-19.

The CDC has reported 80 cases of COVID-19 in 13 states. Nine people have died. Globally, there have been more than 90,000 cases and 3,000 deaths.

Research has found that symptoms might take 14 days to emerge in people who have been infected by this coronavirus — hence the length of the self-quarantine to determine if the travelers arriving at MSP might be infected.

No COVID-19 cases have been reported in Minnesota yet, but state health officials believe it is only a matter of time — especially now that the state has the capacity to test suspect cases on its own and no longer has to send lab samples to the CDC in Atlanta.

The University of St. Thomas has similarly asked students who just returned from studying abroad at the institution’s Bernardi campus in Rome to stay off its campus in Minneapolis and St. Paul for 14 days and quarantine themselves. The university closed the Bernardi campus last week and asked 60 students to return to the U.S. prematurely due to the rising number of coronavirus cases reported in Italy, and CDC travel restrictions to and from that country. Students will continue their studies and receive access to online coursework during their quarantines.