MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- There's now an added layer of protection for first responders working during this pandemic. Gov. Walz signed an executive order on Friday that allows 911 dispatch centers to have access to health department data showing where positive COVID cases are located in the state.

The purpose is to help police and fire departments know when they are responding to calls where they will have direct contact with the virus.

"In Bloomington, we had one officer test positive and two of his coworkers were presumptive positive," said Chief Jeff Potts with Bloomington Police Department. Chief Potts hopes these are the first and last of his officers to get sick with COVID-19 now that officers on the street will know ahead of time when they are about to have direct contact with someone with the virus.

"They're still going to treat and respond to that call, they're just going to be very careful," Potts said.

Bloomington has one of largest police departments in Minnesota. They're not terribly impacted when three officers need to be quarantined, but the Chiefs of Police Association says over half the agencies in the state have fewer than 10 officers.

"If we have one or two who has to go on quarantine, that can be devastating to that department because there simply are no resources left," said Andy Skoogman, the executive director of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association.

Skoogman says for many agencies the lack of PPE is dire, and this executive order will help them ration supplies.

"More than half say they do not have enough PPE, we have some agencies that say they have no masks, no gowns at this point," Skoogman said.

The ACLU of Minnesota has been outspoken about data privacy concerns with this order. "The devil may be in the details in this," said John Gordon, the union's executive director. The ACLU is calling on the Governor to make sure this data is protected and not abused.

"[Make sure that] people do not have emergency care delayed or refused depending on whether their address is in the health department data base," Gordon said.

Chief Potts says data privacy breach should not be a concern.

"Law enforcement has had access to private data for a long time and I think we do a really good job in protecting that," said Potts.

The Chiefs of Police Association says right now 15% of agencies across the state have officers that are currently in quarantine. In the metro, Bloomington had three officers quarantined and St. Paul has had two officers.