Police Narrowly Prevent COVID Positive Passengers From Boarding Flight

In a plot straight out of a television drama, police in Maryland won a race against time to prevent a mother and her coronavirus-positive child from boarding a flight.

The incident happened on Tuesday, Nov. 24, according to USA Today, when the Wicomico County Health Department notified Maryland State Police that a 9-year-old boy tested positive for the virus.

But the police were notified at 3 p.m. and told that the boy and his mother were headed to Baltimore/Washington International Airport for a 4:15 p.m. flight to Puerto Rico, Maryland State Police Sgt. Travis Nelson told the paper.

At 3:15, state police received an isolation and quarantine order that would allow them to stop the mother and child from boarding the airplane. At 3:45 p.m., Nelson said officers got to the airport and were able to identify the mother and son and stop them from boarding.

Start to finish? Under one hour.

“The trust and the network and coordination that’s been formed in 2020 allowed us to prevent another super spreader event from occurring,” Nelson said. “In this case, on a plane to Puerto Rico which could’ve had really unknown consequences for those on (the) plane.”