New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea has tested positive for COVID-19, the NYPD announced Friday.
In a tweet, the department said that Shea is doing well and that he is managing the police force remotely while she works from home.
The department did not provide additional details on when Shea tested positive or where he may have contracted the virus.
Police Commissioner @NYPDShea tested positive for COVID. He’s doing well. He is in regular contact with his executive staff. He stays at home and manages the police station remotely.
– NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) 8 January 2021
More than 8,000 members of the NYPD have tested positive for coronavirus since the onset of the pandemic, and 48 have died from the disease.
The department has been repeatedly criticized for not wearing masks and adhering to public health guidelines, especially during the summer protests.
In June, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he had “had this conversation with Commissioner Shea several times” about police failure to wear masks.
Two months later, the police commissioner shared a video of a large and apparently illegal indoor gathering at the police headquarters, with dozens of people without masks.
The city initially planned to begin administering vaccines to NYPD officials this week, though the plan has since been thwarted by Governor Andrew Cuomo.