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Manitoba reveals how many teachers, health-care workers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19

A health worker carries doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in a box at the Rene-Muret hospital in Servan near Paris, Sunday Dec. 27, 2020. (Thomas Samson/Pool Photo via AP) A health worker carries doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in a box at the Rene-Muret hospital in Servan near Paris, Sunday Dec. 27, 2020. (Thomas Samson/Pool Photo via AP)
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WINNIPEG -

The majority of public sector employees in Manitoba are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the province revealed on Wednesday.

Dr. Jazz Atwal, the deputy chief provincial public health officer, released details on how the new vaccination mandates for the positions are impacting staffing levels, including in education and health-care.

Vaccine mandates for Manitoba education workers are not causing school divisions any significant staffing concerns. Of the approximate 42,000 designated and independent employees within the education system, 143 designated staff are on unpaid leave for not complying with public health orders.

“While the majority of school divisions report no significant impacts due to staff being on unpaid leave or refusing testing, schools and school divisions in regions where there are lower vaccination rates will have a higher proportion of staff undergoing testing as well as those refusing to test,” said Atwal.

Atwal said all staff that refused testing will be addressed by their employer in a progressive discipline approach but noted some of those employees may have resigned.

Of those employees 97 per cent work in public schools.

Overall, 36,540 education employees have provided proof of vaccination with 3,129 choosing regular testing.

When it comes to direct health-care employees, the province said work is ongoing to validate and manually enter paperwork into the system.

As of the end of the day on Tuesday, 36,269 direct care workers have indicated they are fully vaccinated, with the province validating the status of 33,541 of those workers. The province said validation efforts are ongoing for the remaining staff.

In the meantime, Atwal said the vaccination status of those unconfirmed is the responsibility of managers and those people must undergo testing.

The data indicates 184 direct care workers have either not been vaccinated, refused to disclose their status, and refused testing. Atwal noted a significant proportion of those individuals are casual staff who have not worked in the past three weeks.

Currently, 1,788 health-care workers require COVID-19 testing.

The vaccine mandate also affects a number of Manitoba civil service employees with 5,800 positions designated as requiring fully vaccinated employees.

Atwal said compliance is sitting at 99.8 per cent with 429 individuals undergoing regular testing.

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