MOSCOW (Reuters) – Twenty Gazprom workers, who were airlifted to hospital following a coronavirus scare last week, have been discharged after the tests came back negative, a Gazprom spokesman said on Monday.
The workers were quarantined at Bovanenkovo gas field, which feeds the Nord Stream pipeline, and subsequently airlifted to a hospital after contact with a person who had tested positive for the coronavirus. Rotation of shifts was also suspended and the local airport shut.
The current shift at local fields will not be rotating until at least mid-May, while Bovanenkovo airport will stay shut until March 31, officials said.
Separately on Friday, Gazprom said one of its employees had tested positive for coronavirus after falling ill while on holiday within Russia.
Gazprom said the employee was in a stable condition and all necessary measures were being taken, including establishing which people he came into contact with.
As of Sunday, Russia had registered 1,534 cases of coronavirus infection and nine deaths from the infection.
The outbreak has forced many Russian commodity-producing companies to put in place measures, including longer shifts, at far-flung mines.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
