West Covina Police Chief Richard Bell and three other city staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days, prompting the closure of the police department’s lobby and City Hall, city officials confirmed Thursday.
The closures will begin Monday, July 20, to limit contact between police department and City Hall employees and the public, officials said.
Amid a surge of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in Los Angeles County, 18 West Covina city employees were asked to self-quarantine over the past two weeks because they were exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms, with some having been possibly exposed to other people who had tested positive for the disease, City Manager David Carmany said.
As of this week, four of those 18 employees tested positive for COVID-19, he said, among them, Chief Bell. The four are the first known positive cases of COVID-19 among its 300 city employees since the pandemic began.
“It’s at a point where closing things was more than just a pretty good idea, it was just necessary,” Carmany said.
West Covina police Lt. Ken Plunkett has been appointed to acting police chief, officials announced Thursday. Plunkett has been at the department since 2000.
The city brought in a nurse on Thursday to conduct COVID-19 testing on everyone who came in direct physical contact with Bell in recent days, Carmany said.
Among the at least two dozen employees that received testing, he said, were police supervisors, which included Plunkett, police clerical workers, and employees at City Hall.
Test results are expected Saturday.
Bell, who is quarantined inside a trailer provided to the city by FEMA in March, was in “good spirits” and is “anxious to get back when he can,” Carmany said. The city expects to move him in to a hotel soon.
Bell joined the police department in 1999 after a stint with the San Marino and Monrovia police departments. Since then, Bell worked his way up the ranks from officer to chief in July 2019.
City Hall previously has seen a closure. In March, City Council meetings were switched online to virtual meetings. However, responding to a demand from West Covina residents for live, in-person sessions, city hall had reopened its city council chambers to the public in June for its meetings, said Mayor Pro Tem Letty Lopez-Viado.
She said City Council would return to its virtual meetings in light of the closure.
Lopez-Viado said the city is taking all the necessary precautions to protect its employees and the public.
She pointed out how the police department and City Hall are attached as one large building with employees moving to and fro throughout the day, increasing the risk of infection.
Even more so, Carmany said the precautions are necessary for a small city and a small department of only 90 sworn members who are in constant contact with each other.
“If it’s in the community its gonna be in your workforce,” Carmany said. “It’s almost inevitable.”
Coronavirus cases are surging in Los Angeles County with 4,592 new cases announced Thursday, a new daily high, public health officials said. The deaths of another 59 people were also announced.
The city of West Covina, which has a population of of about 106,000, has had 1,637 of its residents to test positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest Los Angeles County Department of Public Health provided Thursday. Among those who tested positive, 20 West Covina residents have died.
As of Tuesday, July 14, there have been 20,528 documented cases of the novel coronavirus in San Gabriel Valley communities, according to county data. A total of 596 San Gabriel Valley residents have died, with four new deaths announced this week alone.