THE POLICE COLLEGE Northern Ireland (Garnerville) has closed for deep cleaning after four student officers tested positive for Covid-19.

“We became aware of the first positive case of Covid-19 on Saturday morning and swiftly initiated our contact tracing process and business continuity plan,” head of the Police College, Chief Superintendent Emma Bond explained.

There are currently four student officers who have tested positive.

There are an additional 15 student officers who have been required to self-isolate.

All confirmed cases are confined to one course of student officers.

These are the first confirmed positive cases of Covid-19 concerning student officers since the beginning of the pandemic.

“The welfare of our officers and staff is our priority and the College will now be closed to facilitate deep cleaning and sanitisation,” Bond said.

“There are robust measures in place at the College to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, however our officers and staff are also members of the community and the reality is that we face the same risks from this pandemic as all other residents of Northern Ireland,” she said.

The College is expected to remain closed for two days while staff work remotely.

“Where training can be delivered remotely we will facilitate this and our student officer team is exploring options for how we can adapt to continue to deliver training to accommodate those who are self isolating,” Bond said.

“We are working on business continuity and recovery plans to return to the site and normal business on Wednesday.”