Four Montgomery County police officers and seven county firefighters have tested positive for the coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, since the pandemic began last month, officials say.
Police Chief Marcus Jones said in a Zoom video conference call on Friday that to date, four county police officers have tested positive for the virus.
“They’ve had minimal contact with other employees, and the majority of the employees who were contacted returned to work from a quarantine status.”
One of the officers, Jones said, has recovered and returned to work, Jones said.
Jones did not indicate whether the four officers with the virus included an officer who county officials reported on March 21 had tested positive.
Capt. Tom Jordan, a police spokesman, declined to comment in an email on whether the officer who tested positive last month was included in those Jones mentioned.
But he wrote that there are four “department employees” who currently have the virus. Of these four, three are police officers and the other is a civilian staff member.
Jordan also wrote that three employees had tested positive, but have since recovered.
“We don’t go into any descriptions of treatment or prognosis other than their positive test and recovery. Thankfully, there have been no fatalities within the agency,” he wrote.
Pete Piringer, a Fire & Rescue spokesman, said in an interview Friday afternoon that seven firefighters have tested positive for the virus. The firefighters include both career and volunteer firefighters, he said.
Piringer said the seven included a volunteer firefighter who lives in Virginia, who was previously announced, and four that the department announced on March 27 that had tested positive, which included both career and volunteer members.
Piringer said he didn’t know how many of the seven firefighters had recovered from the virus.
Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said during the Zoom call on Friday that three recruits out of the department’s class of 47 had experienced symptoms of the virus. Out of those three, one tested positive, Piringer later said in an interview.
All 47 members of the recruiting class and seven instructors are currently under quarantine, Goldstein and Piringer said.
Dan Schere can be reached at daniel.schere@moco360.media
