WINNIPEG -- In the past week, 17 health-care workers have tested positive for COVID-19.
Announced in a provincial news conference on Monday afternoon, Lanette Siragusa, Shared Health's chief nursing officer, gave an update on health-care workers.
According to Siragusa, 1,523 healthcare workers were tested for COVID-19 last week, with 17 of them testing positive for the virus.
Thirteen of the positive workers are from Winnipeg, three are from the Southern Health region, and one is from the Prairie Mountain region.
Siragusa said one of the workers is a physician or resident, six are nurses, seven are allied health or support workers, and three are yet to be identified.
To date, 30,361 COVID-19 tests have been administered to health-care workers and first responders, with 552 workers testing positive. Siragusa noted that the number includes individuals who contracted COVID-19 through travel, close contacts, community spread, and work.
Siragusa also mentioned an uptick in the amount of sick time health-care workers are taking.
"Nearly 111,000 hours were lost in sick time in the last two weeks," she said. "If you can imagine, our schedule orders are working very hard right now to meet this challenge of replacing sick staff at the same time as the capacity is growing and the demand is increasing in the hospitals."
The number includes health-care workers at home sick or self-isolating due to COVID-19 and at home sick with other ailments.
Siragusa said she is appreciative of the hard work from health-care workers right now.
"I want to thank everyone who is doing their best work possible in a really difficult situation,” she said.
