Thanks for sharing – health workforce Covid data welcome

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists is welcoming today’s release by the Ministry of Health of the numbers of health care workers who have tested positive for Covid-19.

The Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield presented the numbers as part of his daily update, along with a useful breakdown of staffing groups.

There are 64 health care workers who are confirmed or probable for COVID-19. The largest categories are 20 support or care workers, 17 nurses, 7 administrative related roles, 7 doctors and 3 medical students.

ASMS had called for the figures to be formally collected and included in the official update. Such information is considered useful overseas in terms of the pandemic response and planning.

ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton says it’s positive to see the Ministry respond so quickly and to have the information out in the public domain.

“As we said, the data will help if we start to get bigger transmission rates within the health workforce and identify any gaps in protection”.

Sarah Dalton says it’s also important to know how many of our frontline health care staff are infected as a direct result of their clinical work, and it’s pleasing to see the Ministry is working to try and determine that.

ASMS hopes the health workforce figures and breakdowns will continue to be included as a regular part of the Ministry’s Covid-19 reporting.

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