Lancashire officers self-isolate after retirement party guest tests positive for coronavirus
Twenty-two officers from Lancashire Constabulary have been ordered to self-isolate after attending a retirement party in Blackburn where one of the guests later tested positive for Covid-19.
The officers, who are all thought to be based at Greenbank police station, will “progressively” return to work based on the timing of their contact with the affected officer.
Earlier this month, Public Health England reported that the infection rate in the area was rising with the number of cases doubling in the space of a week.
Blackburn with Darwen Council issued a warning of a potential local lockdown and has introduced new measure to curb the spread of Covid-19, including tighter limits on visitors from other households.
A spokesperson for Lancashire Constabulary told LancashireLive: “We can confirm some police officers based in Blackburn are self-isolating after a colleague tested positive for Covid-19.
“An officer developed symptoms and was tested on July 21. Immediately after we were notified of the positive result, rigorous contact tracing was put into place which has resulted in a number of officers self-isolating.
“These staff will progressively return to work depending on when the contact with the affected officer took place.”
Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson said: “We take the health of both our officers and the communities we serve extremely seriously. As soon as we were notified by an officer that they had tested positive for COVID-19 we immediately started tracing their contacts and requiring them to self-isolate.
“I can reassure people that we continue to meet all our minimum staffing levels and there will be no effect on operational policing in the county.”
