Spitting ‘shows police should be jab priority’

A MAN spat at a police officer and claimed to have coronavirus.

He was one of 23 people being held on New Year’s Day for a variety of offences.

Chief Constable Simon Cole took to Twitter to say the officer was wearing a PPE mask at the time but that the incident demonstrated why his officers and staff needed vaccinations against Covid-19.

Mr Cole has previously spoken out about the “particularly distasteful trend” of offenders spitting and coughing on officers and threatening to infect them with coronavirus.

He said: “The rise in assaults has huge impacts on staff both physically and mentally, and it has a huge impact on communities.

“Thousands of days of policing are lost because of these assaults.

“I think officers and staff know they have to take risks on occasion, and they understand that, it comes with the nature of policing.

“But you can also see that they’re concerned.”

Adam Commons, chairman of the Leicestershire Police Federation, said: “All through 2020 my colleagues bravely continued to work through this awful pandemic risking their own health and that of their families.

“It is only right that as part of the frontline, alongside the NHS and other emergency service workers, that they are now prioritised in receiving the vaccine.

“I implore our MPs to assist us in lobbying the Prime Minister to ensure my colleagues receive the protection so they can continue supporting our communities.”