A TOTAL of 1,283 Fife Council staff have been recorded as absent from work due to COVID-19.

The figures, a snapshot from Friday May 15, show that workers couldn’t come in for a variety of reasons.

That included 15 people who had tested positive for coronavirus, 14 who had symptoms of the disease and 22 who were self-isolating because someone in their household had symptoms.

A further 720 workers had an underlying health condition or were over 70 or pregnant, while 435 people with a “non-essential role” were marked absent and 77 were caring for dependants.

The figures do not include members of staff who were on leave or off sick for a non-coronavirus reason.

The council said those on paid special leave included employees who needed to stay at home but couldn’t work from home.

On that day they recorded just under half – 44 per cent – of the workforce, 7,768 people, were working from home.

Members of staff who can’t do their normal role certainly haven’t been idle with 1,141 volunteering to do other jobs, in areas such as community food and shopping deliveries, home care, childcare and waste collection.

And the number of e-learning modules undertaken by employees in April was 9,872, compared to 1,270 for the same month in 2019.