This is a developing story, please check back with PEOPLE.com for updates.
An Emirates flight that landed at New York’s JFK airport Wednesday morning was quarantined after 10 passengers on board were taken ill.
One passenger, Larry Coben,shared a photo on Twittershowing a line of responders’ vehicles lined up on the tarmac outside the plane.
ABC News reporter Dom Proto also tweeted that the pilot of the flight reported “2 male passengers with extremely high fevers and approximately 100 passengers ‘coughing non-stop.'” Though neither Emirates or the CDC has confirmed this report.
In a second statement provided to PEOPLE, a representative for Emirates shared an update that all passengers have been let off the plane and those that were ill were transported to area hospitals.
Passenger Coben posted further updates showing passengers having their temperatures taken as they exited the aircraft.
A representative for the CDC told PEOPLE Wednesday afternoon that it had been alerted early that morning that a flight had landed at JFK with “passengers, including crew members, complaining of illness including cough, fever, and symptoms of gastrointestinal illness. CDC public health officers . . . completed health evaluations (including taking temperatures) of all 549 passengers and crew members on board.”
The spokesman noted that “11 individuals have been taken to a local hospital for care,” one more than Emirates reported, “and the remaining passengers have been released.” He added, “We are requesting the passengers who have been evaluated and released to call their provider and health department if they develop any symptoms, and to give their travel history and report of incident. They may receive a follow-up call from their health department just as a check-in.”
On Thursday, a representative for the New York City Department of Health officials confirmed to PEOPLE that the “Health Department’s Public Health Lab completed testing on the 10 passengers on Emirates Flight 203 who went to Jamaica Hospital yesterday with respiratory symptoms. The tests showed no illness beyond influenza or other common cold viruses, and we expect all 10 people to be released from the hospital soon.”
They also clarified that an eleventh passenger also went to Jamaica Hospital on Tuesday, but “did not have respiratory illness and was not admitted to the hospital.”
source: people.com
