The Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission and the Metropolitan Police Department. (Mainichi/Kenji Yoneda)

TOKYO -- A Tokyo police superintendent working at a driver's license center has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) announced April 2, marking the first time that a metro police officer in the capital was found to have the virus.

According to the MPD, the 57-year-old superintendent, who lives in Tokyo's Nerima Ward, works at Samezu Driver's License Center in Shinagawa Ward. He complained of a fever on the morning of March 30 and had been resting at home, but when he took a PCR test on April 2, he tested positive, the MPD said. He is in a managerial position, and had no contact with visitors to the license center.

A male instructor in his 60s at the same license center has already tested positive for the virus, and the superintendent and the staff member had been engaging in kendo, or Japanese fencing, on the evening of March 26 at a "dojo" training hall within the license center. Four others also participated, but have not shown any symptoms of COVID-19.

The license center has been closed since April 1, and it has not been decided when it will reopen.

(Japanese original by Takayuki Kanamori, City News Department)