23 Oakland police officers test positive for COVID
OAKLAND, Calif. - 23 Oakland police officers tested positive for COVID-19, the department confirmed on Thursday.
A spokesperson said the officers are all following the City of Oakland's COVID protocol. They added the department has reassigned officers to ensure there is no impact to public safety.
The department acknowledged the spike in cases they are experiencing is not unlike what other departments across the country are seeing. COVID cases are currently surging in the U.S. from the extremely contagious omicron variant. Locally, health experts compared the Bay Area case data to a ‘vertical wall’ as cases quadrupled this week.
Also, this week California became the first state to record more than 5 million known coronavirus infections.
If that weren't stressful enough, earlier this week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave updated guidance on quarantining and isolating. The guidance is somewhat complex and has led to confusion. CDC shortened the recommended time an infected person should isolate, from 10 days to five, provided the person mask at all times for five days after isolating as long as they have no symptoms. The protocol for those quarantining due to potential exposure is similar.
To cap off these rapid COVID developments, Alameda County is one of the Bay Area counties to reinstate their indoor face-covering mandate. On Wednesday, health officials announced the tighter restrictions would go into effect at midnight and will last until at least Jan. 15 in order to stem the spread of the disease. This goes for all indoor public places, and it doesn't matter if you're vaccinated or not. There are no exemptions.
Oakland Police Department has recently struggled to keep their staffing levels in compliance with the Measure Z parcel tax. The department spokesperson did not have specifics on these officers' condition and did not say if they were experiencing symptoms.