Woman in her 30s dies from coronavirus on plane

A woman died from coronavirus during a domestic flight in the United States, officials have revealed.

The woman, in her 30s, was a passenger on board a flight from Arizona to Texas but passed away before the plane was even able to take off.

It’s unclear if the woman was aware she had Covid-19.

When she began struggling to breathe, she was given oxygen on the plane, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins told NBC 5. However the woman was unable to be saved.

The death happened in July but has only now been revealed by state health officials with the incident included in the latest coronavirus press release from Dallas County in Texas.

Included in the new coronavirus deaths for the region was “a woman in her 30’s who was a resident of the City of Garland. She expired on an interstate airline flight, and did have underlying high-risk health conditions,” the statement reads.

State officials said they were only recently notified of the reason behind her death.

Domestic flights in the United States have surged back with the country’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) releasing a press release overnight saying it screened more than one million passengers on Sunday (local time) in airports across the country.

The figure, from a single day, is the highest number of passengers screened at TSA checkpoints since March 17.

News of the Texas woman’s in-flight death comes as the novel coronavirus continues to surge throughout the country with a majority of states experiencing uncontrolled spread of the disease.

A country-wide tracking project established by a group of public health and crisis experts shows that 30 states have “uncontrolled spread” of the virus, which has grown from 21 states in August. A further 13 states are currently considered to be “trending poorly” with a percentage increase in new cases in the last 14 days.

Covid-19 management a key election issue

As the US surged passed 8.2 million cases and 220,000 Covid-19 deaths, health officials warned the country is facing a third wave as the nation heads to the polls in the most divisive presidential election in recent memory.

Polling data show the 2020 race is increasingly becoming a referendum on the president’s handling of Covid-19.

Reuters/Ipsos polling conducted last week showed 50 per cent of likely voters nationwide feel challenger Joe Biden would be better at managing the pandemic response, compared to 37 per cent for President Trump.

Opinion polling in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin shows that voters there also think Mr Biden is the better candidate to lead on the pandemic.

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