201 frontline staff have caught Covid-19

More than 200 health workers have been infected with Covid-19 during the course of the pandemic, with five cases inmanaged isolation and quarantine workers, data shows.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, there have been 201 cases of Covid-19 recorded as health workers in EpiSurv – the national notifiable disease surveillance database. Of these, 159 had a locally acquired infection – meaning it was picked up within New Zealand during the earlier outbreaks.

As of November 16, Ministry of Health data shows there have been five cases of Covid-19 in MIQ workers, of which three were healthcare workers.

Two were healthcare workers at the Sudima Christchurch Airport managed isolation and quarantine facility, and one a healthcare worker from the Jet Park Auckland quarantine facility.

The remaining two workers were amaintenance worker from the Rydges managed isolation facility in Auckland and the latest case, a New Zealand Defence Force worker from Jet Park.

The ministry published a report in October that detailed healthcare and support workers diagnosed with Covid-19 in the first wave of the virus. It found that as at June 12, there had been 167 cases of Covid-19 among health staff, which at the time represented about 11 per cent of total cases.

In a statement to Stuff, a ministry spokesperson said that since June 12, there had been 12 locally acquired and five imported cases of health workers diagnosed with Covid-19 in New Zealand.