Coronavirus: 'Close eye' on positive tests for NHS Wales staff

The Cardiff testing centre for key workers - currently about 37% of tests in the city are positive for coronavirus

If the rates of NHS staff testing positive for coronavirus increase it could be more challenging for the health service, the doctor leading Wales' response to the pandemic said.

Dr Giri Shankar, incident director at Public Health Wales, said about 40% of health workers tested for the virus were testing positive.

These included a number with mild or no symptoms.

"Not everyone who gets infected will have serious consequences," he said.

"After a direct period of isolation and recovery, they will be able to come back to work," Dr Shankar told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast with Claire Summers.

Last week, NHS Wales said staff absence was running at 9.2% and was fluctuating at around 10% - twice the normal rate - but was higher in some places. Not all these absences are due to Covid-19, however.

"Clearly if the proportion [who test positive] goes higher and higher it will get more challenging," added Dr Shankar. "We have to be keeping a close eye on that and make sure the infection rate does not go up."

But Dr Shankar said not everyone would be off at the same time, with staff returning to work while others become ill and self-isolate.

By the middle of April, the Welsh Government had aimed to test about 5,000 people a day, but the latest figures on Sunday revealed 1,056 tests were carried out.

Key workers from Rhondda Cynon Taff and Cardiff, followed by Swansea, made up more than a third of these new tests.

But Dr Shankar said tests were "not the be all and end all" and the most important thing people could do to stop the spread of the virus was to follow the restrictions and stay at home.

He said in order to get to a point where restrictions could be lifted, they would need to consider the risk in hospitals and care homes, due to the amount of contact between staff and patients and residents.

"Instead of looking at numbers, we need to be looking at who needs testing and are they getting it," Dr Shankar said.

Brian Mfula and Jenelyn Carter had both worked in the Swansea area

It comes as hundreds of staff at Swansea Bay health board have been tested for coronavirus in the last week to give them reassurance following the deaths of two colleagues.

Mental health nursing lecturer Brian Mfula and healthcare assistant Jenelyn Carter, who had worked for the health board for about two-and-a-half-years, both lost their lives.

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Dr Richard Evans, medical director at the health board, said about 500 staff at Swansea Bay health board were tested last week, with about half of tests positive for Covid-19.

He told BBC Radio Wales that staff were "magnificent" and working exceptionally hard during the pandemic, but there were a lot of staff self-isolating due to having symptoms, or a member of their family being ill.

"We are able to offer tests to staff within 24 hours - last week we tested over 500 staff - the turnaround is quite quick," he said.

"About 45%, or about half of all the people we test turn out to have a positive test.

"With that many staff testing positive, we do have some challenges with the number of people at work, at the minute we are managing OK with that, people are working extremely hard to fill the gaps."