Third LAPD employee tests positive for coronavirus

An LAPD officer tested positive for the coronavirus, making him the third employee within the department to be diagnosed with the disease, police officials announced Saturday evening.

The officer was assigned to the department’s Central Community Police Station at 251 East 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles, said Los Angeles police Lt. James Mylonakis, who works at the station.

The central station, which patrols neighborhoods in downtown Los Angeles, is the largest patrol division in the city with more than 300 officers assigned to the location, Mylonakis said.

Earlier this week, the officer had started to show symptoms characteristic of COVID-19, and was sent home by a supervisor, the police department said in a statement posted to Twitter.

Anyone who may have come in contact with the officer was directed to a healthcare provider for evaluation, the department said. The officer’s work spaces and any common areas within the central station were also disinfected.

The LAPD’s statement did not mention the condition of the officer.

Earlier this week, the department announced its first confirmed case among its ranks, a supervisor who worked at the LAPD Pacific Division near Venice. On Thursday, a second LAPD supervisor who worked at the 77th Station in South Los Angeles was diagnosed with COVID-19.

County public health officials on Saturday announced two more deaths and 59 more confirmed cases of coronavirus. Since the pandemic began, the county has seen 351 confirmed cases and four deaths.