A recently published statement from police union pointed out that at 18 November the infection rate inside saxonian police forces was over 4000 per 100 000 people. At least 7% of police officers were not available because of being sick with COVID or being in isolation. At this point last month, infection rate among the general population was reported 761. With current development of COVID in the region most probably amount of cases in the police continues to go up.
However, Minister of Internal Affairs Roland Wöller continues to deny any critic, both from police union and from the general population. Being under fire from media and politicians for his handling of COVID protests, Wöller continues to deny any problems with saxonian police.
At the same time, no governmental structures are providing any open information on situation with COVID inside police forces. Currently, there is small questinary in saxonian landtag to figure out this information, as transparency is not the strongest part of saxonian government.
The information comes at the same time as police gets attention from media all around the world on handling of COVID epidemic inside the forces as well as high resistance against vaccination. In US for example, police departments together with unions fight against obligatory vaccination for the officers despite the fact that they are working with general population. Coronavirus is currently the main death reason among the police officers in the country.
With more responsibilities given to the police to handle COVID pandemic, we believe that only transparency can show which steps are effective in fighting the virus in our communities. Those who get extra power in these times under no circumstances have a right for hiding information from general public.