Polish Mining Group says virus outbreak at mines ending
The Polish Mining Group (PGG) said on Thursday that the situation regarding large-scale coronavirus infections among miners is getting much better, as 78 percent of infected miners have so far recovered.
According to PGG, there were only 415 SARS-CoV-2 infections in all mines on Thursday, while 1,447 employees had recovered. Since mid-June, only one new case of coronavirus has been reported.
PGG spokesperson Tomasz Glogowski said that the scale of screening tests at PGG is "unique on a European scale" in industrial plants. As many as 50,053 swabs from all PGG mines employees have been tested since May 7.
"With the priority to protect employees against the epidemic and safe resumption of production, the company intends to prepare for the continuation of mass screening of employees," Glogowski said.
PGG management has decided to finance the purchase of specialised analytical equipment for coronavirus testing. A modern SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic laboratory at the Provincial Sanitary and Epidemiological Station in Katowice, southern Poland, will have the capacity to perform up to 2,000 tests per day, so testing the crew of one mine will take no more than two days.
Miners constitute more than half of all 12,317 people infected in the Silesian province, southern Poland, which remains the province with the largest number of confirmed infections in Poland.
