Airport CEO, spokeswoman, test positive for COVID-19

Both Joe Lopano and Veronica Cintron are doing well, say airport officials.

By Business Observer Staff
| 7:41 p.m. October 2, 2020
| 2 Free Articles Remaining!

Courtesy. In what it says is the first initiative of its kind in the country, Tampa International Airport has launched a program that will provide COVID-19 tests for arriving and departing passengers.

Tampa Bay-Lakeland

TAMPA — A pair of Tampa International Airport employees — CEO Joe Lopano and Vice President of Communications Veronica Cintron — have tested positive for COVID-19. The tests were announced in a statement issued Oct. 2.

Both Lopano and Cintron are doing well, with Lopano experiencing no symptoms and Cintron feeling mild symptoms, airport officials say. Both are in quarantine.

Immediately upon receiving the results, the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority began contacting all employees and associates whom have been in recent close contact with either Lopano or Cintron and directed them get a rapid test on-site, according to the statement. All those who have been tested through Oct. 2 have received negative results, the release adds.

The Authority had events at TPA this week where face masks and social distancing were mandatory among all participants. One of those events was held Sept. 29, where TPA launched a first-in-the-country program that will provide COVID-19 tests for arriving and departing passengers. TPA, the release states, continues to follow stringent health and safety protocols, including a rigorous sanitization of if its facilities as well as its new COVID-19 passenger testing site.