Nearly 140 Manitoba health-care workers test positive for COVID-19 within a week

WINNIPEG -- According to the province’s latest COVID-19 and seasonal influenza surveillance report, which covers Dec. 13 to 19, since the start of the pandemic, 1,485 health-care workers have contracted the disease. This is 137 more cases than Manitoba reported in the week before.

Of these nearly 1,500 workers, 853 are allied health and support staff; 426 are nurses/licensed practical nurses; 57 are physician/physicians in training; and 29 are first responders. The province did not identify the professions of 120 of the workers.

As for how the health-care workers contracted the disease, the majority (58.6 per cent) got it from close contact with a known case and 0.9 per cent from travel. For 11.8 per cent of the cases the source of infection is still being investigating and for 28.8 per cent it is unknown.

The province is reporting that 1,364 of the health-care workers have recovered.

The surveillance report notes that 220 pregnant Manitobans have contracted COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, which is an increase of 21 cases from the week prior.

Manitoba also saw an additional 11 COVID-19 outbreaks, bringing the province’s total to 146 since the pandemic began.

Between Dec. 13 and 19, Manitoba reported 1,821 new COVID-19 cases, which is a decrease of 345 cases from the week before.

Both the volume of lab tests and test positivity rate also decreased during this week, dropping to 2,169 tests per day and a positivity rate of 12.3 per cent.

Of the 1,821 new cases, 51 per cent were from Winnipeg Regional Health, 18 per cent from the Northern Health Region; and 13 per cent from Southern Health - Santé Sud Regional Health Authority. The Prairie Mountain Health Authority accounted for 10 per cent of the cases and the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority for eight per cent.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, 51.7 per cent of Manitoba’s cases came from close contact to other cases, while 1.4 per cent came from travel. For 23 per cent of Manitoba’s cases, the cause of the infection is being investigated and for 23.9 per cent it’s unknown.

Since Sept. 1, there’s been one confirmed case of influenza in Manitoba, with 28.3 per cent of residents getting immunized.