WATCH: Woman Isolates in Airplane Bathroom After Testing Positive for Covid Mid-Air, Posts TikTok Video
A woman voluntarily isolated in an airplane bathroom for hours after testing positive for Covid-19 on an IcelandAir flight and then posted a TikTok video of her experience that’s now been viewed over 4 million times.
Michigan schoolteacher Marisa Fotieo was flying from Chicago to Switzerland — with a layover in Reykjavik, Iceland — to celebrate Christmas with her family when about an hour or so into the flight, “just all of a sudden, this severe sore throat came on,” she told CNN’s Lynda Kinkade during a segment on CNN Newsroom with Pamela Brown.
Fotieo was vaccinated and boosted, but said she was concerned about the other passengers on the crowded flight — including her own 70-year-old father — and had a rapid test with her, so she took it.
“I thought okay, I’m just going to take a test, it’s going to make me feel better,” said Fotieo, but it was positive.
Fotieo, broadcasting from the Reykjavik hotel room where she’s been quarantining, told Kinkade that she immediately alerted a flight attendant, who initially tried to see if she could move people around on the flight, but it was too full.
So instead, Fotieo explained, the flight attendant asked if she would be okay staying in the bathroom and she agreed.
The choice to quarantine in the bathroom was voluntary, she commented, and she was sure if she had just asked to go back to her seat, they would have allowed her to do so, “but I was too nervous” because “there were so many people on the flight,” including her father.
Fotieo ended up spending about 3 hours in the bathroom for the remainder of the flight. She posted the below TikTok video of her experience, reported Kinkade, and it’s since gone viral, with more than 4 million views and counting. “Shout out to Icelandair for my VIP quarantine quarters,” she captioned the post.
@marisaefotieoShout out to @Icelandair for my VIP quarantine quarters.. #luxuryliving #imsolucky #covid #vaccinated #fyp #viralvideotiktok #quarantine♬ I’m So Lucky Lucky – Grandzz
After landing in Reykjavik, Fotieo got off the plane and went to a hotel to quarantine for 10 days. The flight attendant who had assisted her on the flight, Ragnhildur “Rocky” Eiríksdóttir, dropped off some gifts and a little Christmas tree for her. “We LOVE Rocky from IcelandAir,” wrote Fotieo. “[S]he makes the world a happier place.” In another TikTok, Fotieo called her “truly an angel on this earth.”
@marisaefotieoUPDATE: We LOVE Rocky from @icelandair.is she makes the world a happier place 🧿 ##christmas ##sunnyday ##vaccinated ##covid ##quarantine ##fyp ##viralvideo♬ Sunny Day – Ramol
Fotieo’s time in quarantine ended Thursday, said Kinkade, and she is hoping to “spend the remaining few days of holiday with her family.”
“I love that the flight attendant sent her Christmas gifts,” responded Brown. “Wow, what a story that is.”
Fotieo’s TikTok account revealed that her time in quarantine didn’t end completely smoothly. On Dec. 29 she posted that a fire alarm was going off in her hotel at 1:14 am. “POV: Your quarantine hotel is on fire,” said the caption. “Oh my God, I cannot make this sh*t up,” Fotieo can be heard saying on the video.
@marisaefotieoIts 1:14am…🆘 🚨 #fyp #luxurylife #quarantine #omicron #viralvideo #fypage #icelandadventure #onfire #imsolucky
Fortunately, however, it seems that it was just an alarm going off and not an actual fire. Fotieo’s next post a few hours later didn’t mention anything about the fire and was just a comment responding to some of the reactions her viral video has received.
Watch the videos above, via CNN and TikTok.
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