Since the pandemic began, over 90,000 Canadian healthcare workers have become sick with COVID-19.
According to a new report published Thursday, a total of 94,873 nurses, doctors, and care aides have been infected with the virus.
Since January 2021, the number of COVID-19 infections in Canadian health care workers has increased from 65,920 to 94,873 (as of June 15th, 2021) — 43 of those have died from the virus since last year.
“While the data does not distinguish where the infection was acquired, it does provide an understanding of the degree of impact, which is critical in maintaining levels of care and responding to potential surges of need,” said the Canadian Institute for Health report.
“Ensuring a healthy workforce will help sustain care for all Canadians.”
The report also did indicate that while the number of cases in health care workers increased, growth continued to be slower when compared with growth in cases in non–health care workers.
Cases in health care workers fell from 9.5% to 6.8% as of June 15th, which is being credited to the early access to vaccines.
In BC, there were a total of 8,143 COVID-19 cases in health care workers, which made up 5.5% of the total cases — there was no data on COVID-19–related deaths.
Last week, Dr. Bonnie Henry announced mandatory vaccines for all health care workers working in long-term care and assisted-living facilities and said workers must get at least one dose by October 12th.
Until then, unvaccinated staff will be required to wear PPE and be regularly tested.
There have been a total of 1.4 million cases in Canada. Just over 26,000 have died.
