DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Des Moines police officer has the COVID-19 coronavirus.
"Earlier this week one of out patrol officers became symptomatic--coincidentally, it happened to line up with his days off. He got tested, and hasn't been back to work since then" says Sgt. Paul Parizek
He says the department's stepped up disinfection procedures that were already in place.
"There's a daily routine that repeated multiple times in a 24-hour period when it comes to disinfecting our workspace and our cars to keep our employees safe and healthy. We've doubled down on that and had a really focused disinfection of the workspace where we know this employee was" Parizek says.
Parizek says the department's taken precautions to reduce officers' exposure to the coronavirus since the pandemic started.
"We can take every step possible to minimize these exposures, but we can't provide the service our community needs and we can't do our jobs effectively without some level of contact" he says.
Parizek says the infected officer is being quarantined based on Centers for Disease Control and Iowa Department of Public Health guidelines.