Another grim reminder of how COVID-19 can affect people of any age came with the announcement that an afflicted woman in her 30s died shortly after boarding a commercial flight in July.
The death was announced three months later because Dallas County in Texas just received notice that COVID-19 was the cause of the Garland woman’s death.
She was boarding a commercial flight from Arizona to Dallas and began having trouble breathing as the plane was awaiting takeoff. She was administered oxygen but passed away while the plane was parked on the apron.
“It became difficult for her to breathe, and they tried to give her oxygen,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth. “It was not successful. She died on the jetway.”
Additional details about which Arizona airport and her age and name were not made available for privacy reasons. It is not clear whether the woman knew she was infected with COVID-19 before boarding the plane. A Dallas County news release said she was suffering from other medical conditions.
Her home county has accumulated more than 90,000 cases of COVID-19 with more than 1,000 deaths attributed to the virus that has caused a global pandemic. Jenkins criticized how Texas Gov. Greg Abbott peeled back restrictions once new COVID-19 cases declined.
“What happens with that is people hear that they may not be going to a bar but they think it’s now safe to have friends over to watch the Cowboys game or do something else they want to do,” Jenkins told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth. “We keep jumping the gun and it puts us back in a situation which hurts public health and businesses and schools.”
COVID-19 has caused more than 220,000 American deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
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