Health staff fear shorter quarantine will ramp up COVID cases

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This article was published 05/01/2022 (1608 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Changes to isolation rules that allow health-care staff with COVID-19 to return to work six days after testing positive have sparked new concerns employees could catch and spread the virus while on the job.

Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said nurses are afraid they will not have enough time to isolate and recover from COVID-19 because Shared Health changed quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated health-care providers on Monday.

“This is a symptom of how desperately short we are right now for health-care workers, for nurses,” Jackson said. “(Nurses) are concerned that this is going to cause more of a spread, more of a risk for patients and residents in long-term care facilities, and clients in primary care health clinics.

“It’s worrying that we’re in a position where we’re having to do that,” she said.

On Monday, Shared Health began permitting fully vaccinated health workers with lingering symptoms, but no fever for 24 hours, to go back to work six days after testing positive for COVID-19.

Fully vaccinated workers do not have to test negative and do not have to be cleared by occupational and environmental safety and health before returning to their job.

The highly contagious Omicron variant is behind most new cases, and nurses are worried staff could be infectious when they return and quickly spread the virus in the workplace, Jackson said.

“People are vaccinated, they’re masking, they’re handwashing and they’re still contracting COVID,” Jackson said.

More than 400 health workers caught COVID-19 between Dec. 19 and 25. About half of them are estimated to have been exposed to the virus at work, Shared Health reported last week.

The health authority was unable to say on Tuesday how many more employees had tested positive for COVID-19 since Christmas.

Jackson said the nurses union will monitor whether COVID-19-positive members are pressured to work after their isolation period.

“We need to see how this rolls out because we are between a rock and a hard place. We’re in a critical nursing shortage, we’re in a pandemic that is now really emphasizing how bad this nursing shortage is, and we’re in a position where employers are really being pushed to scramble to find out how they’re going to provide care,” Jackson said.

Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 204 president Debbie Boissonneault said health-care support workers have also expressed concern they will be put at greater risk of exposure to COVID-19 on the job under the new isolation protocol.

“If people are still sick, they should be staying home,” Boissonneault said. “If they’re still coughing, if they’re still having symptoms, they could still be transmitting something.”

Staff who return to work after a recent COVID-19 diagnosis must take meal breaks away from colleagues and physically distance when not wearing masks.

Boissonneault said those requirements will be difficult to meet.

“Not every place has that ability to space,” Boissonneault said. “It’s great to say that you will keep them in their own area and designate them a spot, but it’s not always possible.”

She questioned why members who have been placed on unpaid leave for refusing to disclose their vaccination status or take regular rapid tests have not been called back to work while vaccinated staff with lingering symptoms are free to return.

“If they’re going to bring people back, then they should allow these people to come back to work too,” she said.

As of Tuesday, 125 health workers had been placed on unpaid leave for refusing to comply with public health orders that require them to share their vaccination status or have a negative rapid test within 48 hours of beginning their shift.

To date, 28 staff initially placed on unpaid leave have resigned and 38 have returned to work.

Another 1,576 health workers continue to take regular rapid tests.

Bob Moroz, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, described the policy change as a “yet another quick fix” to address the staffing crisis.

“We’re hearing there’s a lot of confusion and concern on the front line, not just about this new protocol, but the complete lack of support from government and Shared Health,” Moroz said. “After almost two years into this pandemic, we seem to be back where we started.”

In a statement, a spokesman for Shared Health said the shortened isolation period for health-care staff is based on evidence that the Omicron variant is most infectious early in the course of the illness, roughly one to two days before symptoms appear and for two to three days afterward.

“Health-care workers have been wearing personal protective equipment, including medical-grade respiratory protections appropriate to the care setting and type of care they are providing, since early in the pandemic,” the statement said. “With significant community spread and high test positivity, it’s extremely important that vigilant use of PPE — in addition to all other infection prevention and control protocols like hand hygiene, enhanced cleaning, and physical distancing — remain in place.”

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca