An additional 29 Chicago police officers have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the department’s total number of cases to 50, a police spokesman confirmed Monday.
According to spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, the officers are “getting the best care available,” and police are working to implement infection control protocols within facilities used by those officers who tested positive for the disease:
According to the Chicago Tribune, approximately six percent of the entire police department was on sick leave as of Monday afternoon. More than 800 employees of the department are out sick with many different ailments.
Other departments are feeling the strain as more coronavirus cases are reported across the state. At the Cook County Jail, 101 inmates were diagnosed with the virus within a week of the first reported case, and more than a dozen employees at the facility have also tested positive.
The chief of police in suburban Aurora also tested positive for the virus, and last week the Blue Island Police Department was briefly shut down after an employee tested positive for COVID-19. The department has since resumed service.
