Nearly 20 percent of FDNY/EMS members and over 10 percent of NYPD cops screened for coronavirus antibodies tested positive, Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed Wednesday, as the state death toll crept towards 18,000.
The results came in days after Cuomo announced that 1,000 members from each department would be tested for antibodies, which would indicate that their immune systems battled the bug at some point.
Of those screened, some 17.1 percent of FDNY/EMS members tested positive, the governor said.
“We believe that’s because the EMT number is driving it up,” said Cuomo. “They are the frontline.”
Within the hard-hit NYPD — which has about 55,000 uniformed and civilian employees in total — 10.5 percent of tests came back positive, Cuomo said.