NEW YORK – A New York city Department of Correction investigator has died from the coronavirus. The death marks the first municipal-worker fatality from the illness, officials said Monday. Moreover, the city’s top cop warned that police would “suffer” in the pandemic.
David Perez, 56, died late Sunday at an undisclosed city hospital, said DOC Commissioner Cynthia Brann. She stressed that, as an investigator, Perez had only “limited contact with people in custody,” minimizing the risk he spread the deadly disease into the penal system, the New York Post reported.
Perez’s death came as Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a department memo that the NYPD would be hit hard by the crisis.
Many on the force could fall ill, and officers should expect to work extra hours and see changes to their regular duties, he said in the four-page message circulated Sunday, the Post reported.
Furthermore, the memo said that 30 NYPD employees have self-quarantined at the present time.
