Five Dallas police officers were potentially exposed to the COVID-19 coronavirus on Sunday and were advised not to return to work, officials said.
“Per our contagious disease policy, all five officers that came in contact with the arrested person were notified of the potential exposure and advised not to return to work until further notice,” the police department said in a statement Monday evening, according to local news outlets.
At about 9 a.m. on Sunday, the five officers were responding to a disturbance call at an apartment on Hudson Street, police told the
Dallas News. When they arrived, a 24-year-old man was taken by fire and rescue officials to a local hospital for injuries following an assault.
The man was released after he was treated, and Dallas officers arrested him and drove him to jail for allegedly assaulting a family member, police said.
But jail staff notified the police department about a potential exposure to the COVID-19 virus after the man displayed symptoms of the virus and was taken via a private ambulance to Parkland Hospital, the report said.
Five police cruisers that were used during the day were removed from service and are now being disinfected and cleaned, officials said, according to
FOX4.
Elsewhere in Texas, the mayor of San Antonio
declared a public health emergency to prevent more than 100 people who are being held in quarantine from leaving and entering the city. It came after a coronavirus patient who was held in isolation tested negative for the virus twice before the person was let out into the community for about 12 hours, only to test positive for the virus.
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