Andrea Ellis of Illinois says she found someone’s COVID-19 test in her Kohl package shipped from Richmond, Virginia

(Newser)
– A Christmas gift wrapping session became a bit alarming (and very strange) over the weekend, when an Illinois woman found a surprise in the package she had ordered from Kohl’s. Andrea Ellis says Quad-City Times she was preparing presents at her aunt’s house in East Moline when she got inside a yellow lined envelope from Kohl’s to retrieve some garden flags she had ordered for her grandmother. After removing the flags and the packing sheet, she says she saw “something deeper” inside the envelope and, when she took it out, she was shocked by what she saw. “It was a biohazard bag containing someone’s COVID-19 test specimen,” she says. The bag was labeled with a woman’s name, date of birth, and her doctor’s contact information in Richmond, Virginia, from where the Kohl package had been shipped.

Ellis says he called the police, but the officer who came said he couldn’t take her. Instead, the issue was referred to the Rock Island County Health Department, East Moline Police Chief Jeff Ramsey told the AP. Janet Hill, COO of the health department, says her agency now has the biohazard bag and appears to contain a nasal swab and patient information. “I’ve never heard of such a thing,” she says. “I want this person to know that the test hasn’t been done yet.” Her department is trying to contact Virginia health officials to find the patient, and Ellis even tried to contact the patient online after he found her on LinkedIn; He still hasn’t heard back. Kohl’s, meanwhile, apologized for “this very unusual and inexplicable experience” and says it has launched an investigation, noting that the package does not come directly from Kohl’s, but from an “external direct ship supplier”. (Read more COVID-19 articles.)

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