LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva says more than 5 percent of his workforce is in quarantine right now as coronavirus cases continue to surge in the county.
More than 1,100 sheriff’s department employees have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and Villanueva says 886 are currently under quarantine.
"That is a big concern, we have to keep an eye on that," he says.
He also said it would be great if his department was involved in talks about the county’s plans to impose a curfew starting Friday that will require restaurants, wineries, breweries and other non-essential businesses to close at 10 p.m. daily.
"If we sit down with Board of Supervisors, we sit down with people in Public Health and we come to some kind of agreement when it is feasible. Remember it has to be feasible, it has to make sense for the community. There is a lot of pandemic fatigue going on right now and a lot of people are concerned they did all this time separating themselves, social distancing keeping their family away and using a mask and still see a spike," he says.
Villanueva said they will have that conversation as well with the chiefs of police in the county and come to an agreement on what they want to do moving forward with an eye on public safety.