New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea tested positive for COVID-19, the NYPD announced on Friday.
In a tweet, the department said Shea is “doing well” and runs the police force remotely while working from home.
The department did not provide further details about when Shea’s test was positive or where he may have contracted the virus.
Police Commissioner @NYPDShea tested positive for COVID. He is fine. He is in contact with his executive team regularly. He’s at home and runs the Police Department remotely.
– NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) January 8, 2021
More than 8,000 NYPD members have tested positive for coronavirus since the start of the pandemic and 48 have died of the disease.
The department has faced repeated criticism for not wearing masks and following public health guidelines, especially during policing protests this summer.
In June, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he had “this conversation with Commissioner Shea several times” about the fact that police officers do not wear masks.
Two months later, the police commissioner shared a video of a large and apparently illegal internal meeting inside the police headquarters, featuring dozens of people without masks.
The city initially planned to start administering doses of vaccine to NYPD officers this week, although that plan was overturned by Governor Andrew Cuomo.