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After COVID-19, cops and medics go back to work
Thousands of first responders have contracted the coronavirus and returned to the front lines. They do it out of a sense of duty to their colleagues and communities. (Reported by The Associated Press)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - In jail-speak, it's called "the line."
For correction officers, it means any duty that requires working directly with inmates. Custody assistant Sonia Munoz's line is a 184-bed inmate hospital ward at the Twin Towers jail, with its beige walls and powder blue doors. It's where she most likely contracted the coronavirus. And passed it along to her younger sister and her father.
Right now, Munoz, 38, is safe. She's 10 pounds lighter, her thick uniform belt is tightened to the last notch, but she's been transferred to an office gig, where she can line up three bottles of hand sanitizer on her desk and work alone.
Still, the line is there.
Sonia Munoz, left, and Christopher Lumpkin, Los Angeles County Sheriff's custody assistants at the Twin Towers jail, Los Angeles, April 16, 2020. (AP/Chris Carlson)
Any overtime shift could bring Munoz back. Her mother, 3-year-old nephew and 94-year-old grandmother escaped illness last time, but they may not be so lucky again.
It's something her 27-year-old partner, Christopher Lumpkin, worries about.
On March 18, he became the first member of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which oversees the nation's largest jail system, to test positive for COVID-19. He likely passed it to Munoz and three other custody assistants. More than 60 sheriff's personnel county-wide and at least 28 inmates have tested positive for the virus.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's custody assistant Sonia Munoz in the hospital ward of the Twin Towers jail, Los Angeles, April 16, 2020. (AP/Chris Carlson)
Using Facebook Messenger, Lumpkin and Munoz traded stories and symptoms, bedridden in their quarantined homes as the virus spread outside.
"I will pray for you guys as well," Lumpkin wrote.
Now, Lumpkin is recovered and back on the line. He changes his gloves and sanitizes his hands each time he works with an inmate and keeps an extra mask hanging off his duty belt.
Munoz takes similar precautions in her office, separate from the inmates.
But she can't avoid the line forever.
"I have to go back to the lion's mouth."
>SPECIAL REPORT—THESE FIRST RESPONDERS BEAT COVID-19; NOW THEY'RE BACK AT WORK
Sonia Munoz, left, and Christopher Lumpkin, Los Angeles County Sheriff's custody assistants at the Twin Towers jail, Los Angeles, April 16, 2020. (AP/Chris Carlson)