COMPLICATIONS

George Floyd Tested Positive for COVID-19, Hennepin County Autopsy Says

The virus did not contribute to his death, according to the autopsy.

George Floyd, the black man allegedly killed by a white Minneapolis police officer on Memorial Day, tested positive for COVID-19, according to a newly released autopsy report from the Hennepin County medical examiner. He tested positive April 3 and continued to do so through his death, though he was asymptomatic, a phenomenon known as “persistent positivity.” The virus did not contribute to his death, according to the report. The medical examiner found that the manner of his death was a homicide due to “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression,” similar to findings from an independent autopsy commissioned by his family. Three of the four officers involved in his death have been fired and are facing aiding and abetting charges, and the one who kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder.