OKD has announced that it will stop mining in all its mines due to the spread of the disease among employees. According to Czech Television, work at the site will stop from Friday.
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The region is currently the largest outbreak of coronavirus in the Czech Republic. While, for example, only new units of new cases have been added to Prague in recent days, the Moravian-Silesian Region has added more than a hundred on Wednesday, according to hygienists. The most infected are reported by Karviná.
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Of the 3403 tested workers of OKD’s ČSM mines in the Karviná region for coronavirus causing covid-19 disease, 704 were positive. The share is 20.7 percent. The vast majority of those infected had no symptoms or had very mild, underdeveloped symptoms. Petr Kopřivík from the Regional Hygiene Station (KHS) in Ostrava informed about it.
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“They do not consider it a disease. Little did they know that they were infected, and there was nothing on the outside to recognize them. It was hard to blame them, they looked healthy and thought they were healthy, “said Kopřivík.
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Due to the high increase in those infected, the University Hospital Ostrava also issued a blanket ban on visits, which applies from Friday. It is not just about accompanying the childbirth.
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Visit of the Minister
Minister Adam Vojtěch will come to the dramatically evolving situation on Thursday afternoon to solve it. Regional spokeswoman Nikola Birklenová said that she would meet with President Ivo Vondrák (YES), and the joint meeting should also be attended by the director of regional hygienists Pavla Svrčinová and representatives of the OKD management. The Minister will most likely be accompanied by Chief Hygienist Jarmila Rážová and the epidemiologist and head of the disintegration working group Rastislav Maďar.
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“We will address further steps and possible measures,” Vondrák said on Wednesday.
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In the Karviná and Frýdek-Místek regions, stricter measures apply due to the coronary outbreak there – a ban on visits to hospitals and social facilities or a restriction on participation in mass events from 500 to a maximum of 100 people. Even after Wednesday’s release in the rest of the country, curtains in buildings, public transport or mass events are mandatory in the Karviná and Frýdek-Místek regions. Cross-border workers throughout the region must submit covid-19 tests to employers. The worst situation is in the Karviná region, where the disease spread among the miners of the OKD mining company.
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Search for contacts
Already on Tuesday, data from the region and especially from the Karviná region caused a stir. Hygienists performed extensive testing of workers from the ČSM-Sever and ČSM-Jih mines of OKD, which resulted in approximately 17 percent positive for coronavirus. Now it is already the above-mentioned 20 percent.
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Hygienists continue to search for infected contacts.
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“Everyone is not being ruled out yet, it is still going on. Other regional hygienic stations also help us with the processing and we try to manage it quickly, because there were a lot of cases. But the results are probably almost all. We still have to download, process and assign some of them, because they come from different laboratories, “Petr Kopřivík from the Regional Hygiene Station (KHS) in Ostrava explained to Seznam Zprávy.
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Hygienists will only have the final number of infected people, and on Tuesday, for example, testing took place at CSA mines.
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Where does the infection go
According to the epidemiologist and coordinator of the ministerial working group for the release of quarantine Rastislav Hungarian, even the high proportion of infected people among the mines is not surprising. According to him, the disease does not penetrate into the wider society.
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However, Petr Kopřivík notes that it is still too early for such an assessment of the overall course of the disease outside the already known cases. “We are taking all possible measures against this. I can’t tell you today if this is happening. We will find out within 14 days, because the incubation period of the disease is long and people can get sick during it. Therefore, in 14 days we will be able to answer whether the measures were effective, whether the number of cases did not increase, or vice versa, “the expert added.
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The action of hygienists and the state regarding the epidemiological situation in the mines was previously criticized by the Association of Mining Unions. According to them, testing should have started earlier, they also reject any accusation that the miners themselves are to blame for the spread of the disease.
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According to them, it is not possible to observe hygienic measures when working in mines. The trade unionists stated that they drew the attention of the company’s management and the regional hygienic station to this fact and demanded that the work be limited to a safety minimum. In addition, testing began late, according to unions.
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