After Losing Test Results, DPD Confirms 13th Officer Tested Positive For COVID-19
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Nearly four weeks after testing for the coronavirus, a senior corporal who works at Northeast Patrol Division learned on Wednesday about the month-old positive diagnosis and now plans to donate plasma in order to help others who have tested positive.
This makes him the 13th Dallas Police Department officer to test positive for the virus.
His last day on the job was March 19 after he started experiencing symptoms and left work early. He was then quarantined for 14 days.
On March 25, he went for testing. He remained in quarantine while awaiting his test results. Then, he was told his test results were lost.
Thus, 25 days after going into quarantine, on April 13, the officer was cleared by the department's medical team to return to work.
A week later, at the urging of a primary care physician, the officer was given a blood test to see if he had tested positive for COVID-19 and if antibodies were present.
Turns out, he was positive.
All in all, 13 officers and two civilians -- a communications dispatcher and a public service office -- have tested positive at DPD. Only one officer was hospitalized and five of the 13 have returned to duty.
One-hundred-thirty DPD workers have come out of quarantine since the coronavirus pandemic hit and nine are currently self-monitoring.
The department continues to encourage people to use its online reporting form for non-emergency crimes.
Latest Coronavirus News | Coronavirus Resources
