LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Two Los Angeles Police Department officers are hospitalized with respiratory distress due to COVID-19, Chief Michel Moore said today.
More than 2,700 LAPD employees have tested positive for the coronavirus during the pandemic, and 2,680 have recovered and returned to work, according to the department. Fifty-four are currently recovering at home.
“The 54 that we have recovering, their conditions didn't warrant hospitalization. We're following them, their conditions closely in support of them and their families as we pray and look for their recovery from this virus,'' Moore told the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners on Tuesday.
“We continue to stress the importance of this pandemic, that it's not over,'' Moore said. “We recognize a number of our personnel have not taken the vaccine, that as many Angelenos that are subject to this continued threat of this very serious pandemic. We're asking each of them to continue to educate themselves and make themselves available, and to take the vaccine.''
Last week, Moore said that only 58% of LAPD employees have “had a full set of vaccines or have natural antibodies'' from already having contracted the virus. The Los Angeles Times reported that about 52% of officers, as of last week, are at least partially vaccinated, while 64% of Los Angeles residents 16 and older have been vaccinated. The commission requested a report last week from the LAPD on the possibility of mandating the vaccine for officers.
Moore said Tuesday that the department is partnering with Dr. Kenji Inaba, director of the General Surgery Program at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, to encourage LAPD officers to get vaccinated.
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