Dozens of NSW Police officers infected with coronavirus since pandemic began

Dozens of NSW Police officers have been infected with coronavirus since the pandemic began – most of whom contracted the virus on the job.

EXCLUSIVE

Dozens of NSW Police officers have tested positive to Covid-19, including 18 who were infected on the job, NCA NewsWire can reveal.

A total of 38 officers have tested positive since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic – however none of the infections occurred as a result of “recent protests” in the state.

Two of the officers who got the virus on the job were infected while making arrests, and another while enforcing quarantine, according to information supplied by NSW police to state parliament on Friday.

A total of 359 police officers have had to go into self-isolation.

Large numbers of police officers have been involved in enforcing NSW coronavirus rules since the pandemic began last year.

NSW Police said the infected police officers only made up 0.2 per cent of the entire force.

Police have played a large part in enforcing Covid-19 rules. Picture: NCA NewsWire Christian Gilles

The 20 police officers who didn't get infected on the job contracted the virus “through other means,” the force said.

The information was contained in answers to questions on notice posed by a parliamentary committee as part of budget estimates hearings last month.

“These figures are surprising and show how NSW Police officers put the community's interests ahead of their own health,” Labor’s police spokesman Walt Secord said.

“The community tends to forget that police officers are often exposed to Covid and put their own health at risk to enforce public health orders and to protect the community.

“Those figures would have been higher, if it were not for the overwhelming response from police officers to get themselves vaccinated.”

More than 63,000 people have caught the virus in NSW since the pandemic began.

NSW Police and the Police Minister been contacted for comment.

Originally published as Dozens of NSW Police officers infected with coronavirus since pandemic began