TSA says tenth employee has died after contracting COVID-19

The Transportation Security Administration announced on Tuesday that its 10th employee has died after contracting the coronavirus.

“The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announces and deeply mourns the loss of Denver International Airport (DEN) Transportation Security Officer (TSO) Eduard Faktorovich, who passed away on November 16, 2020, after contracting COVID-19,” the agency said in a statement.

According to the TSA, Faktorovich began working at the Denver airport in 2018.

“His colleagues remember him as a kind and respectful person, who always had a smile on his face.  Although Eduard was with TSA for only two and half years, the entire team at DEN is saddened by the loss of one [of] their own,” the agency said.

Some 2,934 TSA employees have tested positive for COVID-19 across 246 airports since February, The Washington Post reported.

Government authorities, airline companies and hotels have been grappling with how to help the struggling travel industry while keeping people safe and preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it would be ending its screening program meant to detect the virus among air travelers, saying it was ineffective in identifying infectious individuals.

“Symptom-based screening programs are ineffective because of the nonspecific clinical presentation of COVID-19 and asymptomatic cases,” said the report.