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An NYPD cop tested positive for COVID-19 after riding in a bus with nearly two dozen other officers heading to Washington, DC, to help with inauguration security — forcing the entire contingent to hole up in their hotels rather than do their jobs, The Post has learned.
The cop, one of a total of 200 officers who were bused to the nation’s capital, was notified by his doctor after arriving Monday that he had COVID-19, police sources said.
A police spokesman said the cop felt fine until getting down to the nation’s capital and took a rapid coronavirus test Tuesday, which came back positive.
“While he was there he became symptomatic. He lost his sense of smell,” the spokesman said.
The entire busload of about 21 officers and a driver was tested and then forced to quarantine, according to the spokesman. So far, he added, only one other officer contracted the coronavirus.
Two others who were considered close contact with the officer were also tested and put in quarantine, according to the NYPD.
The 24 officers will remain in their hotel until they return to NYC on Thursday and will get tested again, a police spokesman said.
“Unreal,” one source quipped. “Are you not surprised by this?”
“I think it was horribly coordinated by the brass of the NYPD to have that many members of service on a bus sitting next to each other without getting a test prior to boarding the bus,” another police source said.
Each of the five police buses, which can carry up to 50 people, has around two dozen onboard due to COVID safety protocols, according to a police spokesman. The remaining officers, just under 100, drove down in 12 other smaller police vans.
The initial officer was believed to be assigned to a precinct in Staten Island.
It was unclear when the last time he got a negative test in New York before getting on the bus.
The department sent the cops down to DC after district officials requested the assistance of law enforcement from around the country after the deadly Capitol siege.
More than 25,000 National Guard members were also stationed in DC for Inauguration Day.
