One of the Hawaiian Airlines' most senior L.A.-based flight attendants has died from complications related to COVID-19.
In an email sent to KTLA, the company’s President and CEO Peter Ingram confirmed that Jeff Kurtzman tested positive for the virus in California earlier this month.
Ingram says Kurtzman joined the airline in 1988, and “…over the past three decades 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 said.
According to a company spokesperson, Kurtzman attended a recent flight attendant training at Hawaiian Airlines' Honolulu headquarters -- the training has been linked to a cluster of COVID-19 cases, KTLA sister station KOHN 2 in Hawaii reported.
LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Wednesday, July 22 "COVID-19 appears to be on track to becoming one of the leading causes of death in LA County."
She says it's far deadlier than the flu.
Between March and June, COVID-19 killed twice as many people as the flu. Hospitalizations remain the highest they've been since the pandemic began.
Gov. Newsom addressed California Wednesday, confirming that the state currently has the most COVID-19 cases in the nation.
California has more than 400,000 cases but the death rate in New York is more than California. Gov. Newsom addressed the increase in cases on Wednesday saying "it is a sober reminder of why we are taking things as seriously as we are."
"It's not surprising now in some respects as we begin to reopen key sectors of our economy and people continue to mix and people continue to come in close contact with others who may have contracted this disease that our numbers would start to go up in total now the highest in the nation," Newsom said.