Maryland authorities rushed to find and prevent Covid-19 positive child from boarding flight



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Police were told by a local health worker at 3 p.m. on November 24 that a young boy who was about to board a plane with his family had tested positive for Covid, Police Sgt. ‘State. Travis Nelson told CNN.

The health worker told police they were unable to reach the Mother of the 9 year old child. The family had to leave Baltimore / Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport (BWI) in less than two hours.

State Police immediately contacted police from the Maryland Transportation Authority (MTA) – the airport’s main law enforcement agency – and gave them the departure time, destination and names of the family, Nelson said.

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In less than 15 minutes, state police received a legal isolation and quarantine order from the health worker and handed both documents to airport officials.

It took about half an hour for the airport authorities to locate the family and at 3:45 p.m. they were able to call the mother on the phone with health officials.

It all happened in “less than an hour,” Nelson said. “I’ve never been on a plane, no significant exposure there or anything like that.”

The family were sent home with the boy’s isolation order and a quarantine order for his mother, due to his direct exposure, Nelson added. The family has not been identified and it is not known when or why they were tested for the virus.

The shutdown was a good demonstration of the state’s coordination system at work, Nelson said, and a testament to the confidence that has grown statewide over this year, to the point where a health service local can get critical information statewide in just a matter of minutes.

The swift effort came as millions embarked on Thanksgiving trips last week, despite a warning from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urging them not to do so. On Sunday after Thanksgiving, Transportation Security Administration agents screened more than 1.1 million people, according to a TSA spokeswoman – the highest number since mid-March.

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