Maryland police stop child with Covid from boarding flight

A mother and son were stopped from boarding a flight in Baltimore, Maryland over the Thanksgiving holiday after authorities learned that the child had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Maryland State Police Sgt. Travis Nelson said the agency was alerted to the boy's positive Covid-19 test around 3 p.m. on Nov. 24 after they were contacted by local health officials.

The Wicomico County Health Department said it had information that the mother and son were traveling to Puerto Rico and they could not be reached.

"We immediately got the information for the mother and child and relayed that to the Maryland Transportation Authority police to begin to find the mother and child," Nelson said.

Within 15 minutes, state police were able to obtain a legal isolation and quarantine order so that officers could stop the family from boarding the plane and have them return home.

Airport police were able to find the family at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport and gave the son orders to isolate at home and told the mother to quarantine because of direct exposure.

By 3:45 p.m., less than an hour after state police were contacted, authorities were able to get the mother on the phone with health officials, according to Nelson.

He said that they don't believe the mother knew that her son had tested positive for the coronavirus. Their identities have not been released.

Nelson said the quick work to locate the family was the result of a trusted partnership state police have the various health departments and local agencies.

"It's one of those things where you never really know what could have happened when you prevent something, but this was definitely a win in how we were able to prevent the spread from further occurring," he said.