Jeff Kurtzman, a Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant died on Tuesday, after testing COVID positive post a training session late June. Kurtzman was 60 and passed away on July 21 after developing serious symptoms pertaining to the COVID infection.
He was one of the 16 trainees who participated in the session. “Over the past three decades [Kurtzman] had become well known to his in-Flight colleagues for his passion for discovering new places, people and cultures; his terrific sense of humor and knack for easy conversation; and his caring heart. He embodied the values of aloha and Malama that we hold dear,” Ingram wrote in the email.
According to the Hawaii Department of Health, the attendees of the training session were infected because of not observing social distancing and masks. Since the past couple of months, these measures have been made mandatory not just in Hawaii but also around the globe due to the cases increasing exponentially with every passing day.
According to Johns Hopkins University data, Hawaii has experienced some of the lowest COVID-19 infection rates, with the most recorded in Honolulu at 1,225 cases. The measures taken by Hawaii have been swift and strict and have been successful to curb the spread of the virus to a great extent.