The Tories are accusing the Minister of Health of being less than candid during the release of information after dozens of workers—many of them being nurses—at the Health Sciences were potentially exposed to COVID-19.

Over 100 workers ended up being taken out of the health care system for a period of time.

Eastern Health issued a release on the incident on Monday, May 4th, after the daily provincial COVID update.

Opposition Leader Ches Crosbie says if there’s one thing the province learned from the breast cancer hormone receptor testing scandal, it’s that you do not sit on information.

He feels the public should have been made aware of the potential scope of the situation on May 4.

He says significant incidents of that nature need to be shared as soon as reasonably possible. He says the Health Minister should have shared the information during the daily public briefing.

Health Minister John Haggie says he was unaware of the full magnitude of the situation until Tuesday.

He says it was a low-risk issue as was presented by Eastern Heath at the time as the patient subsequently tested negative on numerous occasions and no health-care workers tested positive as a result.