400 Plus Officer Out Due to COVID-19; 170 are Positive

Last week, we reported on the COVID-related death of a second police officer. Corporal David Jimenez, who was awaiting his results, began exhibiting symptoms of the virus. Days later, his condition worsened and on December second, he was rushed to the K.H.M.H.  Jimenez died three hours later inside an ambulance in the parking lot of the hospital, as medical personnel from the K.H.M.H. could not attend to him.  It’s an unfortunate situation for the police, who are also frontline workers in the fight against the deadly virus.  Today, Commissioner Chester Williams says that the police department has over four hundred plus officers out due to the COVID-19 pandemic; one hundred and seventy have so far tested positive while hundreds more are in quarantine.

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“We have about a hundred and seventy officers who are currently positive and we have a total of about four hundred officers in quarantine and isolation combined. We are expecting to get results today in terms of those who are awaiting results from the Ministry of Health and hopefully that will clear some of them in terms of those persons, who are awaiting results, that some of them are not positive.”