REVEALED: 'Issues' recording COVID infection rates among health staff
Department of Health does not know how many workers are infected
It has emerged figures to show how many healthcare staff have tested positive for COVID-19 in Northern Ireland are not available.
Downtown Cool FM can exclusively reveal that there is no way of knowing the total infection rate among doctors, nurses, surgeons and other health and social care workers.
When asked for a breakdown of the figures a spokesperson said there are 'none available.'
A statement said: "Information on the total number of Health & Social Care Staff who have had a positive laboratory completed test for COVID-19 is not currently available as information to enable the accurate identification of Health & Social Care Workers was not initially collected by all parts of the testing programmes.
"The Department is currently working through outstanding issues with HSC Laboratories and the National Testing Programme to establish a consistent count of Health & Social Care staff tested, and it is the Minister’s intention that this information will be included on the DoH dashboard when these issues are resolved."
Official figures show the total number of people who have had a positive test for COVID-19 in Northern Ireland is 5891.
Meanwhile health chiefs insist no COVID related deaths among healthcare workers have been recorded in Northern Ireland.
Last week a doctor in Dublin became the eighth member of front-line staff to die from coronavirus in the Republic of Ireland.
Waqar Ali Shah passed away in the Mater University Hospital after three months in its Intensive Care unit.
He had been working as a locum when he became unwell.
In April Northern Ireland's Health Minister told Downtown Radio Cool FM the figures to show the number of health workers with coronavirus in Northern Ireland who have died 'aren't even in single figures.'
There were later reports that four healthcare workers had died from the virus but a health source told me they were not active workers.
In a statement, the Department of Health said: "Since the Trusts set up their process for recording healthcare worker hospitalisations and deaths, no deaths have been reported.
"The department is aware of a small number of retired health and social care staff that lost their lives to COVID but not while at work."
On Friday, the Department of Health's COVID-19 death toll stood at 556, while the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency's overall figure was 850.