New COVID isolation requirements now in effect mean hundreds of health care workers could return to the workplace in the next day or two.

Fully vaccinated people who are a household contact of a positive COVID case and who don’t have symptoms, can go to work or school but must otherwise isolate for five days.

Health Minister John Haggie says there are currently over one thousand health care workers isolating, but only a handful of those have tested positive for COVID. He says the new isolation requirements mean many of those workers will be able to return to work in the coming days.

He says only 221 of the 1,013 health care staff currently in isolation have tested positive for COVID.