Every officer from the Venice Police Department in southern Illinois has tested positive for COVID-19 forcing the entire department to shut down, the mayor said Thursday.
Officials said when all of the officers reported feeling ill last week, the department created a contingency plan for safety services to continue in their absences.
The city of roughly 2,100 people will be policed by a joint effort between the Illinois State Police and the Madison County Sheriff's Office.
The four employees — three police officers and one police chief — will recover in quarantine for the next two weeks, the Post-Dispatch reported.
"I want everyone to know we are covered," Mayor Tyrone Echols promised. "They haven't lost a step."
The mayor said the two-square-mile community is already dealing with a staff shortage of police officers, calling the outbreak a stark reminder COVID-19 is still "alive" and spreading.
"It's out there," Echols assured. "It's a shame there are people talking against masks and the vaccine."
COVID-19 has plagued other law enforcement agencies nationwide, including in nearby St. Louis County. Colonel Mary T. Barton's office said that 15 county officers tested positive for the virus in the last three weeks. Nearly 250 of the county's officers have been infected since the pandemic began.
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