A Texas judge announced over the weekend that a woman who died on a July flight from Arizona succumbed to COVID-19, according to several reports.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins announced an additional 592 cases of the coronavirus and three deaths due to the virus, and the Garland, Texas, woman was included in that tally. Jenkins said his office was notified the woman, who was in her 30s, died July 25 while the plane leaving from Arizona was parked on the apron, according to news station NBC DFW. The woman, who has not been identified, had struggled to breathe before the flight, and she was given oxygen before she died on the jetway.
“We don’t know a whole lot,” Jenkins said. “We may not know if she was aware she was sick. Contact took place in Arizona.” The flight was headed from Arizona to Texas, Jenkins told ABC affiliate WFAA.
Dallas County reports the woman had underlying health conditions, but further information has not been released in consideration of her privacy. Two other deaths were announced for the county. One was a woman in her 50s who had been critically ill in a hospital, and another, a man in his 50s, was also in critical condition at a hospital before his death.
Dallas County has reported 1,085 deaths as of the Sunday report. The county has reported more than 89,000 cases since the start of the pandemic. According to Dallas County Health and Human Services, of the cases that required hospitalization, more than two-thirds of those cases have affected residents over 65. Diabetes has also been an underlying health condition in one-third of those cases.
As for the woman who died on the plane, Jenkins said her death is a “reminder that there is no age restriction in COVID.”
