Dozens of police infected with Covid

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 police 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 contracted 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.

The 20 police officers who did not get infected while on the job contracted the virus “through other means,” the force stated.

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 have been contacted for comment.