Increasing number of LAPD personnel testing positive for COVID-19

Police Chief Michel Moore updated the Los Angeles Police Commission Tuesday on an increasing number of personnel testing positive for COVID-19, with 20 testing positive in the last week, up from 12 the previous week.

The increase brings the total number of Los Angeles Police Department personnel testing positive for the virus to 5,307. The department has about 12,000 sworn and civilian employees.

Of the 32 most recent cases, 26 were fully vaccinated, Moore said.

Fifty-four LAPD employees are currently off-work recovering from the virus, and Moore said employees are typically away from the workplace for 10 days after testing positive for the virus. The 54 people who are home recovering is up from 22 two weeks ago, when Moore gave his most recent COVID- 19 update to the commission.

Health officials have been reporting elevated daily case numbers in recent weeks, attributable largely to the BA.2 subvariant of the virus. An offshoot of that variant — known as BA.2.12.1 — has also begun spreading locally, and health officials said it is believed to be 20% to 30% more infectious than BA.2.

In light of the growing spread of the virus, county health officials on Monday urged employers to take steps to protect employees and customers from infections, such as providing well-fitting masks, improving ventilation, screening employees who may be experiencing symptoms and adhering to isolation/quarantine guidelines and reporting clusters of cases.

The urging came as the county reported 5,920 new infections from the past three days, along with 13 new virus-related fatalities.

The county no longer reports case and death numbers on weekends. On Monday, the county reported 1,368 new infections, along with 2,728 from Saturday and 1,824 from Sunday. The new cases gave the county a cumulative total of 2,877,960.

The 13 new fatalities lifted the county’s overall death toll to 31,970.

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