Alberta Health Services said Friday that 1,205 workers have tested positive for COVID-19 out of 124,055 total employees with AHS, Alberta Precision Laboratories and Covenant Health.
That means about one per cent of the entire workforce has had the virus.
“The majority have since recovered,” AHS spokesperson James Wood told Global News in an email.
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Of the 651 AHS employees who have tested positive and whose source of infection has been determined, 186 — or 28.6 per cent — acquired their infection through a workplace exposure.
The source of infection for an additional 554 COVID-positive AHS employees is still under investigation.
More than 4,000 AHS, APL and Covenant Health physicians have been tested for COVID-19 and 64 (1.6 per cent) have been positive.
The source of 42 of those cases has been determined and seven physicians (or 16.7 per cent) were infected through a workplace exposure.
The source of infection for an additional 22 physicians is still being investigated.
As of Nov. 13, there have been four AHS staff hospitalized for a COVID-19 infection resulting from an occupational exposure, Wood said. None of these staff were admitted to ICU and all four have since been discharged from hospital and have recovered, according to AHS.
“Positive employees are not causing any significant staff shortages and any absences for positive employees are being managed through scheduling or overtime as with any other absences,” Wood said.
“However, acute care and continuing care outbreaks are causing staffing challenges.”
AHS is managing those staffing issues by using overtime and redeployment, Wood said.
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Still, community cases and increased hospitalizations are putting pressure on the entire system.
Dr. Noel Gibney, a professor emeritus at the University of Alberta and a former doctor at the U of A hospital, says data has shown that every time a health-care worker tests positive for COVID-19, about six other staff members have to isolate.
“Where we are with staffing at the moment, we definitely don’t have the staff to cope with an increase beyond where we are now,” Gibney said.
In terms of active COVID-19 cases, as of Friday, there were 437 active cases among health-care workers. That includes anyone who self-reports as a health-care worker when they’re being tested and therefore includes workers outside AHS, such as long-term care or pharmacy workers.
“AHS is supporting those staff who have been exposed through the workplace and we continue to do everything we can to prevent further exposures,” Wood said.
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He pointed out that the infection rate for health-care workers is very low and is lower than the community positivity rate.
“We thank our healthcare workers for their excellent attention to hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, fit for work testing, and other controls available to them as we continue to work together to limit workplace exposure as we respond to COVID-19,” Wood said.
“Our hospitals and emergency departments remain a safe place to come and to receive care. There is no increased risk to patients coming to hospital.”
On Thursday, 860 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Alberta, along with 10 additional deaths from the disease. Alberta’s COVID-19 death toll rose to 393.
Since the pandemic began, Alberta has confirmed 36,405 cases.
There were 225 people in hospital with COVID-19 Thursday, with 51 of those being treated in intensive care.