‘It's a nightmare’: Police across the UK call for vaccines as officer self isolates after being spat at

Police across the UK are calling to be vaccinated after an officer was spat at.

The Norfolk Police sergeant said that he and four colleagues from the force's Operation Moonshot team, which disrupts criminals on the road networks, were spat at recently.

He said they do not yet know if they have contracted coronavirus.

Stock picture: Police Scotland

The sergeant, who asked not to be named, said he fears for his family's safety.

"Luckily it felt like the spit missed me, but it went onto the other officers with me, on a female officer's hair and in another officer's face," he said.

"But you're still in a close environment and you don't know if any of the droplets have gone into your eyes.

"It's just disgusting.

"He said he had Covid-19 and he was coughing in the back of the police car.

"We're just waiting now and they're going to find out if he is actually Covid-19 positive.

"It's a nightmare, the team is worried, they're anxious and questioning whether they've got Covid-19.

"It's just awful.

"You can't go on patrol in full PPE because you'd have to change it every time you stop a car.

"We're a proactive unit and we're stopping cars all the time.

"We're doing a lot of work around county lines, so we are mixing with people from different areas.

"I've been in this job 21 years and I've been spat at a few times, and it's never nice.

"It's the lowest of the low.

"You're thinking to yourself, it's not just me that this affects, it affects my family too.

"I can't go out of the house, I have to consider where I'm staying in the house because I don't want to give it to somebody else if I do have it."

He said he would feel "a million per cent" more confident doing his job if he was vaccinated.

"I cannot understand, we are a 24-hour resource, you could probably get the whole force vaccinated in less than 24 hours," he said.

"I don't get why we are being left behind."

This comes after the Scottish Police Federation released a statement contesting the decision not to include police officers in priority vaccinations.

David Hamilton, Chair of the Scottish Police Federation said: “Nobody disagrees with the approach of prioritising vaccinations for the old and the vulnerable, or for frontline health and social care workers.

"But we all know that individuals, not in that cohort, are also being vaccinated as a consequence of the roles they are doing.

“For the FM to airbrush that reality out of her earlier response has enraged Police Officers many of whom continue to put themselves at personal risk on the public health frontline.

“Their simple question is, where do those individuals who are Security guards, Undertakers, Religious leaders, Foodbank Volunteers, Volunteer Rescue teams or even Home workers, who are not in the priority cohort, fit on the JCVI list? There is no consistency in this policy and we are left

wondering if the Scottish Government has lost control of its vaccination programme altogether.”

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