100 cops in quarantine, two more have COVID

TWO COPS attached to the St Thomas Police Division are among the latest to have contracted the coronavirus, while approximately 100 members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force JCF) are in quarantine because of exposure to contacts of suspected or confirmed COVID-19.

This brings to eight the total number of police officers who have tested positive for the virus since the initial outbreak in Jamaica on March 10.

Sergeant Patrae Rowe, who is also chairman of the Police Federation, is among the members now in quarantine.

On Tuesday, he told The Gleaner he was doing fine.

“Two members from St Thomas have the virus,” Rowe said, refuting claims that as many as four members may have tested positive.

Rowe said he could not speak to information reaching The Gleaner that the officers who contracted the virus may have had it transmitted from their wives who recently returned from overseas.

The Police Federation chairman’s quarantine is self-imposed precautionarily because of possible exposure to Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson, who tested positive for COVID-19.

The federation is aware of other police officers outside the St Thomas division who have confirmed cases of coronavirus.

“I can speak to a total of eight since the initial outbreak ... . We are still doing the checks,” said Rowe.

“A number of persons are still awaiting their results. The results are coming in.”

The Gleaner gathered that officers are being taken care of by the Government and the JCF medical branch.

“There is a medical services branch that is taking care of the medical checks and the medical needs of the members. The welfare department of the JCF is doing the necessary response,” Rowe told The Gleaner on Tuesday.

Rowe said that more than 100 members of the JCF are in quarantine islandwide.

The Gleaner has also learnt that one of the recent confirmed cases in St Thomas is a policeman assigned to the Detention and Courts Unit in downtown Kingston.

That office was closed on Monday and is scheduled for reopening on Thursday. Sanitisation exercises are being undertaken.