Ten ambulance staff test positive for COVID-19 - 6 advised to self-isolate - ‘none had any contact with patients’

The service have said those who tested positive were based in its southern division and had “attended a social event outside of work”.

A further six workers have also been advised to self-isolate.

This was initially reported in the Belfast Telegraph, which says the event was believed to have been a golf trip in the Republic of Ireland.

This morning on BBC, Michael Bloomfield Chief Executive of NIAS, said that staff who tested positive are now coming to the end of their 10 day isolation periods.

He said: “This happened almost two weeks ago and we should soon be seeing staff return to work. No one was seriously ill”.

Mr Bloomfield said the Ambulance department in Craigavon has approximately 60 staff - and there were 15 on the golfing trip, of which 12 were Ambulance staff. He stressed they were not all “emergency staff”.

He added that they had ascertained that the virus was spread by “community transmission and not through work”.

He said that “staff were away together for a number of days” and “it passed from one to another” which “shows how contagious it is”.

He stressed none of the staff who tested positive had any contact with patients.

“I want to stress there were no patient contacts as a result of this,” he said. “None of them were in work in 48 hours with onset of symptoms - none of staff been in work since. One member was in work a short time but had no contact with patients”.

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