A New York Police Department employee who tested positive for the coronavirus has died, marking the first death in the agency’s workforce.
“Today we lost one of our own: City Custodial Assistant Dennis Dickson, who faithfully served with the NYPD since 2006, has passed away from complications related to the coronavirus. Our deepest sympathies & all of our prayers go out to Dennis’ colleagues & family,” Dermot Shea, police commissioner for New York City, wrote on Twitter late Thursday.
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Today we lost one of our own:
City Custodial Assistant Dennis Dickson, who faithfully served with the NYPD since 2006, has passed away from complications related to the coronavirus.
Our deepest sympathies & all of our prayers go out to Dennis’ colleagues & family.#NeverForget pic.twitter.com/EOcWNsBAHY
— Commissioner Shea (@NYPDShea) March 27, 2020
New York City is viewed as the epicenter of the outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States, accounting for more than a quarter of all confirmed cases in the country.
Dickson was a custodian who worked at the bureau’s headquarters. A statement from the NYPD, which has 36,000 officers and 19,000 civilian employees, said he spent 17 days “on the front line cleaning and disinfecting” during Super Storm Sandy “so that our personnel could be here safely, allowing them to continue to serve the people of the City of New York.”
Approximately 10% of NYPD officers, or 3,674 workers, were out sick Thursday. The agency reported that 294 officers and 57 civilian workers tested positive for the coronavirus.
The rate of employees calling in sick has increased daily this week. On Monday, the agency reported 2,407 did not go to work because they were sick. It could not immediately be determined why more officers are calling in sick and to what extent the absences are related to new coronavirus infections.
