WINNIPEG – Chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin says while Manitoba’s pandemic numbers are trending in the right direction, the province could still be doing better. New surveillance data released this week shows more than 70 health care workers tested positive for COVID-19 between December 27 and January 2, which brings the total number of cases among health care workers to 1,666.

Dr. Roussin estimates that more than 2,800 Manitobans who skirted Critical-level public health orders by gathering for holiday festivities were close contacts of the more than 530 new cases that spread on or after Christmas.

Most of the infections among health care workers – just over 57 per cent – are allied health and support staff. Nurses make up just over 29 per cent of the newly-reported COVID-19 cases in health care staff, four per cent are among physicians and physicians in training, and two per cent of the cases were found in first responders. Investigators were unable to identify nearly eight per cent of the infections among health care workers.