New York police officers do not get sick that often, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said earlier this week. But with the novel coronavirus pandemic striking the city harder than any other metro area in the country, he added, “our sick numbers are significantly moving up.”

Those numbers continued their sobering rise Saturday, when the department said 6,698 of the force’s 36,000 officers — or 18.5 percent — were out sick or in quarantine Friday. A day earlier, there were 6,498 unavailable, or 18.1 percent.

Most cited flu-like symptoms. Almost 1,800 have tested positive for coronavirus since the outbreak began.

The New York City Fire Department said that, as of Friday, about 3,000 of its 17,000 employees, including firefighters, EMTs and civilians, have had to take sick leave during the outbreak; 376 have tested positive for the coronavirus.

“That’s a problem. That’s a problem in the NYPD. That’s a problem in the FDNY. It’s a problem all across the board,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Friday.

The sidelining of so much of the workforce comes as officials warn that the city is overwhelmed with calls for aid. In a Saturday tweet, the FDNY reiterated that it “urges New Yorkers to only call 911 to seek medical care after all other options … have been exhausted.”

The police department has taken action to mitigate the spread of the virus, Shea said. Many officers are working from home, and those with preexisting conditions are being kept out of circulation.

Security personnel are screening people outside precincts to prevent infecting those inside, officials said. Some precincts are conducting roll call outside.

Additional equipment arrived Thursday after the police department sent an “SOS” to the White House: 6,000 gallons of hand sanitizer, 120,000 pairs of gloves and 4,275 protective suits.