Nearly 1 in 4 Ascension sheriff’s deputies have gotten coronavirus, showing toll on law enforcement – The Advocate

Nearly one-quarter of the deputies in the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office have contracted the coronavirus since the outbreak first appeared in the state last year, new data from the sheriff shows.

Just on Thursday, more than 20 employees in the 353-person department were out with the COVID-19 illness the viruscauses, the sheriff added.

Sheriff Bobby Webre said that, while deputies were infected during the earliest wave of the virus last spring and one died in the second wave over the summer, a wave that started in the fall has been the worst.

"The third surge hit me the hardest," he said.

Despite the high numbers, the sheriff said he believes infections in his department have started to ease some in recent days and is hopeful that the department may receive doses of the vaccine starting on Monday.

Had the worst trends in cases continued a little higher, Webre said department officials were discussing enhanced restrictions that would have sent some employees home again to work, as they did last spring.

Law enforcement officers are among several categories of essential workers who, health experts say, bear elevated risks during the viral pandemic because of their regular interactions with the public, often in unpredictable situations.

An Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office deputy died Saturday morning after a weeks-long battle with the coronavirus.

Though statewide or parish-level figures for law enforcement viral cases weren't available from the state health department, the nonprofit Officer Down Memorial Page tracks law enforcement deaths in the line of duty. The national death figures are suggestive of the virus's impact on officers.

Based on Officer Down's tallies for 2020, deaths from the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 hit 208, by far the greatest cause of death for officers in that year. The next highest category in 2020 was non-accidental gunfire, at 45.

COVID-19 deaths alone for law enforcement officers in 2020 exceeded the total of all officer deaths in the line of duty for each of the previous five years, according to Officer Down's annual counts. The average annual death toll between 2015 and 2019 was 173 per year.

Webre's department has lost one officer to COVID-19. Deputy Kyle Melancon, who worked as a correctional officer and in transportation during his seven-year sheriff's career, died Aug. 1 from the viral illness.

Webre said his department has applied masking and social distancing requirements and, during the spring, had some of his deputies work from home. But others, like those in patrol, corrections and dispatch, had to remain at their regular offices or in the field. He said those departments had been hit hard as a result.

In all, 82 of his deputies have contracted the virus since March, for a 23% share of the department, he said.

Webre said it remains difficult to know how deputies are getting the virus, whether from one another at work, in the community, at home or some combination.

Ascension has continued to have double-digit positivity rates and elevated new daily cases per 100,000 people, above the figures for the Baton Rouge area as a whole, an Advocate analysis shows. But the figure has been trending downward since the end of last week.

The seven-day average on Wednesday in Ascension was 29.5 new daily cases per 100,000 people. The regional average was 23 per 100,000.

Webre, a former longtime jail warden in Ascension, said infections in the parish prison have been limited, though figures weren't immediately available.

Webre said that if he can receive 150 vaccine doses, that number would handle giving first rounds to just about all the deputies who haven't already been infected and want a shot.

Some deputies have refused to receive the vaccine, Webre said, and he isn't requiring that they take it.

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Nearly 1 in 4 Ascension sheriff's deputies have gotten coronavirus, showing toll on law enforcement - The Advocate