Entire Police Force Quarantined After Officer Tests Positive for COVID-19

Amid the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak in Texas, all 12 members of a police department in Kemah, just outside Houston, have been quarantined after one of the officers tested positive. Kemah Mayor Terri Gale, Kemah Police Department Chief Walter Grant, five police dispatchers and three city employees have been tested, the mayor confirmed. They have also self-quarantined, Houston's ABC13 reported. Tests for all Kemah police and city hall staff who came in contact with the infected officer were immediately ordered after officials were made aware Tuesday that the officer tested positive. Kemah City Hall and the Kemah police station have been temporarily closed. Both facilities will be deep-cleaned. The return of the officers and other staff will depend on the test results which may be back by Wednesday, the mayor confirmed. The Galveston County Sheriff's Office is providing police protection over Kemah and an additional dispatcher was deployed to handle calls for Kemah, Sheriff Henry Trochesset confirmed. There are 3,293 confirmed cases in Galveston County, including 231 new infections reported Tuesday, according to the latest report from the Galveston County Health District. Of the county's total cases, 342 are linked to long-term care facilities, while 32 of the 40 deaths in the county to date are also related to long-term care facilities, according to the Galveston County Health District. The latest incident follows a spike in new infections across the state that's seen the outbreak take a "very swift and a very dangerous turn in Texas over just the past few weeks," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott noted at a press briefing Thursday. On Tuesday, the state reported 6,975 new cases, the highest daily case count since the outbreak began, according to the latest report Tuesday from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Abbott announced a "temporary pause" on further reopenings in Texas on Thursday to "help our state corral the spread until we can safely enter the next phase of opening our state for business," he said in a statement. Under an executive order issued by Abbott, bars and other similar businesses who "receive more than 51 percent of their gross receipts from the sale of alcoholic beverages," were closed from noon local time on Friday. Restaurants were permitted to offer dine-in services at a 50 percent capacity limit for indoor occupancy.

The novel coronavirus, first reported in Wuhan, China, has spread to more than 10.4 million people across the globe, including over 2.6 million in the U.S. Over 5.3 million globally have reportedly recovered from infection, while over 511,900 have died, as of Wednesday, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University. The graphics below, provided by Statista, illustrate the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S.

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The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates the seven-day rolling average of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and European Union.