A 47-year-old veteran of the Mission Police Department who until recently had spent months at the hospital battling COVID-19 now has a day in his honor.

READ ALSO: Mission police lieutenant returns to Rio Grande Valley after COVID-19 hospitalization

During their Monday city council meeting, Mission city officials declared February 8 “Lt. Javier Ramon Day,” in honor of Ramon.

Ramon was hospitalized with COVID-19 last August and was eventually transferred to a hospital in San Antonio.

Ramon was welcomed back home late last month with a parade at the Mission Event Center. He has been with the department for 27 years and was described as a a happy-go-lucky man who loves his wife and two children.

He helped start the K-9 unit at the station and looks over the criminal investigations bureau.