Two LA city employees have died from coronavirus, says Mayor Eric Garcetti

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Friday evening that the novel coronavirus has hit the city employee ranks hard, with two workers dying from the illness in recent days.

“It saddens me very deeply that we have lost from our own city family,” Garcetti said during his daily briefing.

There were no further details about which departments the employees worked in.

Garcettie said that the identities of the people “are not public yet. When families allow us to, we’ll share that information of two people that I believe now have died who are city employees.”

Over the past several weeks, public officials have shared numbers of confirmed cases from the city police, fire and county sheriff’s and fire departments. Fewer details have been available about other city departments, but there have been reports trickling out of cases.

“This is touching everybody,” he said. “It wasn’t just lip service these were going to be tough days. I said this was going to hit us. They’re going to hit the people we work with. They are going to hit our families, they are going to hit our neighbors. And we are still in that period.”

Garcetti said Friday that in the Los Angeles Police Department, there have been 52 confirmed cases, 40 of whom are sworn police officers and 12 are civilians. Of the total, 10 have returned to duty, and two are in the hospital.

Among the Los Angeles Fire Department ranks, 15 employees have tested positive for COVID-19, with 14 of them sworn and one a civilian employee. Five of them have returned to duty, and one is in the hospital.