Woman spends 5 hours in airplane bathroom after testing positive for COVID mid-flight

After landing, the flight attendant who helped Marisa Fotieo sent her a care package.

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Thursday, December 30, 2021
Chicago teacher quarantines in airplane bathroom after testing positive for COVID during flight
A Chicago teacher who tested positive for COVID-19 spent five hours in an airplane bathroom during a flight to Iceland.

CHICAGO -- A woman spent five hours in an airplane bathroom after learning she tested positive for COVID-19 mid-flight.

Marisa Fotieo, a teacher from Chicago, revealed in a Dec. 20 TikTok video that was flying from Newark International Airport to Iceland when her throat started to hurt.

She took a self-test and tested positive for coronavirus.

Fotieo spoke with an Icelandair flight attendant, and crew members decided that she would spend the rest of the flight in the bathroom.

But the teacher told ABC affiliate WZZM that the airline tried to make her as comfortable as possible.

"Their flight attendants are so positive and so kind, and they just put everybody at ease the second that this happened. They put me at ease, which is why I think I was so willing to stay in that bathroom," she said.

After landing, the flight attendant who helped Fotieo sent her a care package with food and gifts for 10-day isolation.