Another member of the Oakland Police Department has tested positive for coronavirus, in the department’s fifth case overall.
The news comes after the department announced on Tuesday that an officer, the fourth in the department, had tested positive and exposed 93 fellow employees. There were reports that the officer was not wearing a face mask as required during a recent traffic stop, but officials dispute that report.
“The officer did wear a mask throughout the shift at certain times,” says OPD spokesperson Johnna Watson, who says officers are only required to wear PPE at designated times such as, “any close contact with our community. And then there are times if you’re not around anyone in the community, there’s no one close by, you certainly can remove your face covering.”
The employee in the latest case was exposed to this officer and had been at work earlier in the week but is now under self-quarantine and has not shown any symptoms.
Watson says many officers within the department, much like healthcare workers and law enforcement colleagues around the country are making personal sacrifices by not going home or interacting with family at all during the pandemic.
“They want to ensure that they don’t risk their family or their loved ones to a potential exposure that they may receive themselves when they’re coming here to serve our city,” says Watson. “Or if they do go home, it’s a certain section of the house. They don’t go into common areas, they have a designated area and the rest of the family has a designated area.”
Five other employees have been tested and are awaiting their results.
